Broken Glass
by Kbeckettcastle
Summary: Gina is a woman of power but what happens when she pushes her power to far to get what she wants.Squeal to in a different world
1. Chapter 1

Kate was currently standing by herself, looking out the window at the New York city skyline. It was actually beautiful to see, with all the lights on and the silhouettes showing against the evening sky. She hadn't seen Rick in over an hour. They had arrived together about two hours previously, but after general introductions to various important people, he had been pulled off to another room by his publisher. Since then, he had been talking to this author, and that author and this celebrity, and that. He didn't really seem to have time for her. His job seemed to be all-encompassing. Finally, she thought she was surprised when she saw a familiar pair of faces in the reflection of the window. She turned around to meet them.

"Katie," Jim said, walking over to his daughter.  
"Both of you came!" Kate said shocked.  
"Of course sweetie. You look lovely!" Johanna kissed her daughter's cheek. Kate did look very nice. Her dress was a svelte, blue cocktail dress that came to mid-thigh and showed off her trim figure exquisitely.  
"Oh, Katie, is that the Hervé Léger dress we got you last month? You look beautiful!" Joanna gushed over the way Kate looked. It made Kate blush furiously.  
"Yeah, I decided to wear it today, to look nice for Rick. We I even got a number of compliments from the ladies here. It felt nice to hear them. But as far as Rick goes, we were together at the start of the party, until his publicist, Paula, dragged him away for a private conversation with some other writer named Peterson… No, sorry, it's Patterson."  
"So, where's the man of the hour?" Jim asked trying to cut out his frustration that Rick had been socializing with other party guests while Kate stood in the corner, sipping champagne.  
"He's just introducing himself to some other writers and owners of publishing company's, I was actually thinking of leaving early to save Joe from the twins, I bet you he gave them junk food I told him not to."  
"We could go and check on them, you should enjoy yourself," Johanna said to her daughter.  
"It's fine, it's getting late anyway, and I'm on call tomorrow," Kate said excusing herself and going home.

Meanwhile, Rick was in the middle of a conversation.  
"Mr. Patterson, I really want to thank you for talking with me. I know I've got a long way to go, but I really appreciate your insight."  
"That's okay, Rick. You really should call me Jim. We're in the same business, after all. As for my own guidance, I find that focusing on how real of the characters are, and how close to reality I can make the situation. These are what gets me the best reader response… and the best book sales, too!"  
Rick smiled. "I'll remember that. I really think that hands-on research will probably be my best friend." Rick paused and looked around the large room for someone. "Mr., uh, Jim, I would've liked to introduce you to my wife, but I can see she's busy talking to her parents." At that point, Rick brought a book out that he'd been holding behind himself. "Would you mind signing this for me, Mr. Patterson?"  
"Sure, Rick. What's your wife's name? I can make it out to the both of you."  
"Her name is Kate, and she's the love of my life!"

Patterson smiled broadly, and signed the book and held it out to Rick.  
"I hope I see you at more of these events Rick. It's a tough road, but it can pay off as long as you work at it."  
"Thanks again, Jim. I'm sorry I took up so much of your time. Have a great night. I guess I need to talk to my publisher. I can see them waving at me."  
"Take care, Rick." Patterson turned to walk away but then turned back. "Hey, do you play poker?"  
"Well, I haven't had much practice, so I'm not too good yet, but I do like to play."  
"That's not a problem. When you'd like to try it out, give me a call. I put my number in the book for you. Maybe you might like to sit in on some poker games with me. I usually have Cannell, Lehane, myself, and whomever else that we can find. Some new blood would be great. We only play one's five's ten's, so it shouldn't break the bank." Patterson mentioned as he walked off to get a refill.

Kate unlocked the wooden door to the loft to see Joe watching the sports channel on the widescreen tv. She also noticed the mess of Barbie dolls and accessories.  
"Hey, Joe," Kate said making Joe jump while hanging up her coat.  
"I swear I was going to clean up the Barbies," Joe said making Kate make her eyes roll. "Sure you were Joe, so how much sugar did you pump into my kids?" Kate asked sitting on the couch with Joe.  
"McDonald s happy meal and ice cream sundaes," Joe said quickly and with his eyes glued to the basketball game.  
"Joe," Kate growled in her Cop voice.  
"Coca Cola, too?" Joe mumbled.  
"Lemonade," Kate said hitting his shoulder with a pillow  
"It was only a small one, The smallest they had!" Joe flinched, as he waited to be hit by a pillow again. Or something worse.  
Fortunately, moments later, Rick walked in to see Kate bashing Joe with a pillow. "Help! Your wife is killing me!" Joe whined to Rick.  
"How much junk food, Joe?" Rick asked also hanging up his jacket, as Kate moved away, still holding the pillow.  
"Coca Cola," Joe said.  
"You were just asking for that pillow-bashing, weren't you?"  
"She used her scary Cop voice, I had to tell."  
"Alright, Kate, I think he gets it," Rick said, grabbing the pillow that was in mid-air, and heading right for Joe's head.  
"I think I'm too scared to drink Coca-Cola again," Joe said fixing his hair. "I should be heading home, anyway," Joe said getting off the couch.

"Why did you leave early?" Rick asked Kate from the bedroom.  
"It was getting late and Joe needed to get home and plus I'm on call tomorrow so I need to get some sleep."  
"So it had nothing to do with the leaving you all yourself, I didn't realize I would be away that long and I would have brought you over but you know writers. We seem to like to talk more then we write."  
"It's fine. I talked to my mom and dad when they showed up, so I wasn't alone," Kate said turning off the lights in the bathroom and getting under the covers. She cuddled up to her husbands bicep and kissed his cheek. "Rick, can we talk?" Kate whispered in his ear.  
"Sure."  
"The twins are two and I was thinking maybe it might be time to have another baby," Kate asked hopefully.  
"You know how much I would love to Kate, but Gina said we are still focusing on my image and promoting myself and heaps of book tours and I won't want to leave you raising toddlers and being pregnant all by yourself."  
"Yeah, you're right." Kate replied, as she weakly smiled, but Rick could hear the disappointment in her voice.  
"Look, Kate?" Rick tried to explain.  
"No, you're right, goodnight," Kate said turning off her light and going to sleep.

 **Authors note.**

 **may hate me half way through the story**

 **will be a happy ending, all my stories end with a happy ending.**

 **the end chapter three, I think you will get what the storyline is.**

 **don't hate me.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Bit of a error in Chapter one that I forgot to edit. The twins are six in this story not two. Enjoy the fluff cause it all starts to go downhill next chapter.**

The next morning, Kate wakes up early, as is her habit, and looks over and sees Rick, sprawled on the bed, snoring lightly. Although she is not happy with the way the previous night had ended, she smiles a bit to herself. 'Maybe later, we can talk about more kids.' She thinks to herself. In the meantime, she gets up and tends to the girls. They have finished the First Grade and will be turning 7 this July. But for today, it's a Saturday, so she is planning on taking them to the zoo. Ever since Rick got Alexis her Monkey Bunky toy, she has always loved Monkeys. But Lacey seems to follow her mother and maternal grand-mother in her love for the elephants.

Kate has gotten on a pair of jeans and a Nebula 9 t-shirt, and goes out to find out what the girls are up to. As she opens the door from her and Rick's bedroom. In addition to what seems to be an argument between Alexis and lacey, she can hear muted funny voices. She walks out and sees both of her girls eagerly watching a cartoon show.  
"Hi, girls. Whatcha arguing about?"

Alexis speaks first. "Mommy, I want to be Eliza, so that I can talk to Monkey Bunky, and Lacey says that SHE is going to be Eliza!"  
Kate is a bit confused by this statement. "What are you talking about?" Kate looks over and notices that Lacey is giving Alexis a 'death glare', and doesn't seem happy with her at all. But Lacey answers the question.  
"We're watching The Wild Thorneberry's, and in it, Eliza talks to animals. I think that I'm better at it because of how much gooder I can talk to Elly my elephant. But Alexis is being a stubborn pig-head!"  
"Wow! You girls need to be a bit nicer to each other. Can't you both be Eliza? You both talk to your pet animals so well? Plus, if you're just going to argue, then maybe we won't go to the zoo, after all…" Kate trails off.

"No! Mommy, we can both be Eliza!" "Mommy, Lacey can be Eliza, too!" They both say at the same time. Then, in unison, they say. "When are we leaving?"  
"Well, I think getting dressed is going to be first and that will probably take the whole morning, and then having a good breakfast is second. That will probably take until tonight. Next, there is the looooong, looooong drive to the zoo, and then we have to wait and wait and wait and wait in line to go in. It might not be until next week." Kate says with a sad voice, but turning her head to hide her smile.  
"Mommy. We can be fast. We can get dressed in one second! Then we have to wait for you to make the food for us. I'm sure we can eat it and leave in just two minutes!" "That's right! We're fast, mommy!" Alexis added.

"Welllll. Okaaaay. Go get dressed, and I'll make eggs and bacon for you. Do you think we can get daddy to make you some pancakes?"  
"Yay!" "Pancakes!" The girls say together, and they both rush off to wake up Rick. "Daddy! Daddy! Wake up! We need pancakes if we're gonna see the zoo-aminals!" As they headed into the master bedroom.  
Kate just smiled, shaking her head and got the food out and the pans to make it in. She was busy in the middle of it when she heard a great big bear growling and yowling a lot, and then the girls came running and screaming out of the bedroom.  
"Daddy-bear is after us!" and they both ran off, up the stairs to their bedroom to dress.  
Even without looking up, Kate can sense Rick as he quetly snuck into the room. "Hey, babe. Do you think you can make our little monsters some pancakes?"

"Absolutely! I am the premiere pancake cooker-upper, after all. I can even add chocolate chips to them!" Kate laughed at this and told him "Please don't burn my pancakes, if you can avoid it. You were so busy getting the girls pancakes presented to them the last time, that you kind burned yours and mine. And although you can have yours however you like, I prefer mine without the black char on them." She said, teasing and smiling.  
"You got it. I'll make up a special order, just for you. Char-free, but maybe with a kiss or two." He smirked. He then got all what he needed and started the pancake process.  
Kate watches him for a moment and then says. "Rick, I know that we can talk about another baby later, and I *do* want to have that discussion. But I really feel like Black Pawn seems to be running more and more of our lives. You have to here and there and everywhere for book tours and signings. They call you in all the time for meetings. Is it really supposed to be that much interfering? Lately, I get the impression that they don't want me to appear at your events with you. In the beginning, most of them were in the evening, and I was off work by then. But during the last year, most of them are during the day, when I'm working and can't attend. Is that on purpose?"

Rick pauses for a moment while he's mixing the batter. "I know, honey.I wish you could be there for all of them. Lately, Mr. Grimm, who is the owner of Black Pawn, has been taking less and less of a hand in things, and he's been passing it off to Gina Cowell. She's the blonde-haired woman you might have seen at the party last night, talking to me, just before you left. She's the one that's been making these changes, and admittedly, they've helped. The number of people who buy my books has increased to almost double the buyers. It means more money and more security for us and the girls." He paused again as he flipped the next pancake out of the pan onto a plate, and pouring more batter in for the next. "I do miss having you with me at the book launches. And during when they were two, we were able to bring the girls along on that US book tour, before you joined the Police Academy. That was really a lot of fun." He picks up the plates and puts them in the warmer. "But now that we are both working, things have gotten more difficult getting more time together. It's been over a month since you and I went out on a date. We need to find more time to be together as us, and as a family. It's just fortunate that we have Joe here for baby-sitting."

Kate sighed. "I know, I know. What with me being a new Detective, Junior Grade though it may be, my responsibilies are greater and working a case takes a lot of time. I do have the occasional day off, but a lot of times I'm on call."  
There were shouts of glee coming from upstairs, as they heard footsteps pittering down the stairs. "Are the pancakes ready?" Lacey called out. "I want some bacon!" Alexis added.

"The big hungry bear has already ate it all up. There's none left for you! Rowr!"  
"Don't listen to your father, girls. We gots ya pancakes, we gots ya eggs and bacon. We even gots ya orange or apple jince. Whaddaya want?" Kate said in a Bronx accent.  
The girls quickly ate their breakfasts, and Kate headed out with them for the zoo. Daddy had been bad, and had to finish the final edits on the latest HEAT book for final submission, so he couldn't go. He waved goodbye to them all. "Have a great time girls! Bring me back an elephant! Love you!" As they headed out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

The following Monday, Rick got a call from Black Pawn requesting his presence for a meeting. He talked with Joe and they were able to work out a time-frame for Joe to watch the girls while Rick was away. When Rick got there, he was directed again to the conference room. When he got there, they had some minmal munchies, plus coffee, tea, and cold water. He grabbed a bear claw and coffee and sat down. A moment later, Gina came in with a few large folders, which she laid on the table. She sat down and stared at Rick, as if he'd done something wrong.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"  
She looked down at a sheet of paper she had out and then looked up at him. "So, we'll be publishing your 11th Heat novel, and this time, we want to do a book tour before release. Kind of a teaser to get people to buy it as soon as it comes out. You could read a few paragraphs from it that should really get people eager to buy it and read it themselves. Since we plan on releasing it on August 15th, we think that an eight-week tour should do quite nicely. That way we can cover a lot of cities that we've missed before, and get an even greater footpring for readership. What do you think?"

"Um, well it's already the middle of June now. That's only eight weeks away. I have to do the book tour until then?"  
"Well, you can go home and we can catch a flight out tomorrow. That way you'll be done right around the release of the book."  
"But Gina, that's less then one day from now! I have to prepare things for my family, arrange for my being away, and other things. This is too soon. Can't it be next week, or the week after? Why so soon?"  
"Come on, Rick. You signed a contract, and we have a book tour as part of it. It'll be fun. You can read some of the story, sign some chests, and have a good time. What's the big deal? It'll be fun."  
"Why is this happening now? Why wasn't I given any warning to prepare my family for this?"

"Well, we have been talking to various big chain book stores, and we will be having a perfect storm of openings for your appearances. A lot of time-slots opened up. We couldn't ignore that. And it is in your contract to do this. It's listed as having two months a year to do these. We're just getting them all out of the way at once."  
"But eight weeks! That's a long time to be away from my wife and my daughters. Not to mention less time for writing the next novel. This is going to push me back that two months."

"Oh, geez. We give you about 7-8 months to write each one. So you have two months less. You can handle it. Come on, be a man about it." Then she looked at him with a rather sexy smirk. "Besides, I'll be there with you the whole time. It'll be a lot of fun!"  
"Ugh! Fine, where's the paperwork and tickets?"  
"Hear you go, Ricky." And she slid one of the folders over to him. The thing was over an two inches thick.

"Holy crap! What is this, another book? This is huge!"  
"It's tickets, information about the itinerary, city list and things do be seen doing. You're 26 years old. You *need* to be seen out there. Doing night-clubs, parties, the whole thing. That's what will keep them coming in for more books. Maybe you can even get some salactious pictures taken during the book tour. Now *that'll* help sell books!" She sais with a snicker.  
"Oh, good gosh…" Rick drinks the last of his coffee, throws the bear claw away that he hadn't even taken a bite of, grabbed the folder and walked out. "I'll see you at the airport tomorrow morning." He said with a growl.  
Quietly, to herself, Gina said. "Yeah, baby, I'll make you growl. And you'll do it just for me only!"

As Rick was riding a cab home, he was thinking about how to explain this to Kate. He had to leave tommrow! This is going to kill Kate. If Kate doesn't kill Gina, that is. Gee, wouldn't that be nice if somehow Gina could be framed for murder and thrown in jail. Yeah, that'd be nice. Wake up, Rick. You need to get real here. I am definitely going to call Kate and the girls every night! Oh, wait. There was that new program that came out last year. What was it? Skip? Skall? No, Skype! Yeah, that way he could see them, as well as talk to them. That would make things a bit better. Oh, but it's going to be a hard road tonight. Oh, gosh! Two whole months! It's going to be hell! I really need to renegotiate my next few contracts. This is too much!

Finally, Rick got home. He decided to make Kate's favorite dinner. It didn't hurt that it was the girls favorite, too. Spaghetti Bolognaise, with garlic bread on the side. The twins loved the garlic bread. Plus some mint chocolate chip ice cream for desert. Okay, it was going to be a really good meal.  
The first thing he did was to checked in with the girls, Once there were okay, he went to pack his suitcase and laptop for travel, and put it by the front door. Then he started getting all the ingredients for dinner.  
He was in the middle of preparing the meat, when the girls came down the stairs.  
"Hi, Daddy!" Alexis said. "Can we watch some TV?" Lacey asked.  
"Sure, girls. What do you want to watch? Are you going to be ready for dinner when you mom gets home?"  
"We are going to watch the PowerPuff Girls. We like to watch them! Alexis is Blossom, and I'm Bubles!"  
Alexis looks at Lacey. "You can't be Bubbles. She has blonde hair, you have brunette. You have to be Buttercup!"  
Rick decided to live dangerously and ask. "What color hair does Blossom have?"  
"Oh, daddy, she has red hair, just like me! That's why Lacey has to be Buttercup!"  
"Well girls, you can go and enjoy your show. You each can be whomever you want to be. I'm just going to be over here getting dinner ready for you guys. Okay?"  
"Sure, daddy. But whats the funny smell over by you?"  
Rick turned, and saw smoke coming from the pan of meat he was cooking. "Oops!" He grabbed the pan and moved it over to the sink. Once the smoking had stopped, he scraped out the burnt bacon and cleaned the pan. He then got more b

acon and started again.  
"Uh, you girls enjoy yourselves. I'll be busy over here. If you have any questions, just ask."

They turned the TV on and were busy watching their show. Rick kept busy making the food, and getting it ready for when Kate came home. Usually she got home around 6 PM unless there was a critical case. Being that she was a Junior Detective, she generally got stuck with the crap jobs. Lately though, things had been going better. She'd been a Junior Detective since October of last year (2004). She'd paid her dues, and rarely got stuck with time wasting. Her Homicide job was a whole lot better then her Vice job. He hated that. Sure, she looked fabulous the few, rare times he saw her 'in uniform', but she tried to avoid that. It wasn't her lifestyle, and it only caused some of the other cops to hit on her. Fortunately, she could show them her wedding ring. And for the few that weren't turned away by that, she had a gun if needed.

Finally, it was 6 o'clock. He asked the girls to come over to eat. They began, and they loved it. "Don't worry girls. You mommy is probably just running a bit late. She'll call or be here soon." That seemed to pacify the girls who were always worried when 'Mommy' wasn't there for dinner. Rick had served up Kate's portions and had put the plate in the warmer, to wait for her. When it got to be 6:30, Rick was getting a little worried himself. When it got to 6:45, he was about to call, when the house phone rang. He was there to answer it in seconds.

"Castle residence" He started.  
"Hi, babe. Things are getting a bit critical here and I probably have at least another hour or two before I'm done. Did the girls eat yet?"  
"Um, yeah. We had Spaghetti Bolognaise, and I have some set aside for you, too. Is everything okay? Not out in the field at this time of night, I hope?"  
"No, it's interrogating and paperwork. With luck, we'll be done with this case tonight. Can you put the food in the fridge for me to eat when I get home?"  
"Sure, no problem. But I did want to talk to you about something. I'll be here when you get home. Love you."  
"Love you, too, Rick. Bye!"

Rick turned back to the girls who were looking at him with some concern.  
"It's okay ladies. The police are very busy putting the bad guys in jail. Your mom has to do lots of paperwork to make sure they don't get out. She'll be home about the time you go to bed. In fact, she even might be home to tuck you in."  
Alexis looked up with a sad look on her face. "I miss mommy. I wish she would always eat dinner with us."

Lacey added. "I wish she was *always* with us and never left."  
"I do to girls. But mommy has an important job that helps a lot of people. She'll be home in a while and I'm sure she'll give you all kisses. Are you done with your food? Can I put the plates in the dishwasher?"  
"Yeah, daddy. And we can help!" Lacey said.  
Rick gave them a big smile. "You're must be big girls if you're going to help me."  
And they cleared and cleaned the table. After that, they went in and watch the 'Lilo and Stich' DVD until it was time for bed.  
Just as the ending credits rolled, the girls heard the sound of a key in the door. "Mommy!" they both yelled, and sprang up from the couch and ran for the door.  
Kate came in the door, looking very tired. It had been a long day for her. She had gone in around 6:00 AM, and here it was past 8:00 PM.  
"Long day, huh babe?" Rick offered. "You're just in time to help me put the girls to bed. I'm not sure about it, but I really think that they *might* want a good night kiss from you. What do you think, girls?"  
"Yes! Mommy kisses are the best!" Alexis called out.  
"Kiss me too, mommy. I missed you!" Lacey said, to add her two cents in.

About 30 minutes later, the girls were washed, changed, and tucked into bed. Rick made up a short bedtime story for them, and both Kate and Rick kissed them goodnight. But the girls first had Rick check to make sure there were no monsters under the bed. Once that important task was done, they closed the door, but left it ajar, so that a thin crack of light could come in. Then Kate and Rick headed back down to the kitchen, where Rick reheated the dinner he'd made for Kate.  
"So, Rick. What did you want to talk about?"  
"I must admit that I wish I'd had more time to talk to you about this tonight, but it looks the the 'verse is conspiring against us today." He said, with a small smile.  
"Is there a problem, Rick?"

"Yeah. You know basically how my contract runs. Generally about 8 months to do a book, and then four or five times a year, I do a one- or two-week book tour."  
"Yeah, it's worked out pretty well so far. In fact, I'm kind of surprised that you haven't had any yet this year."  
"Mm-Hmm, and that's the problem. They want me to do an eight-week book tour to hype the new book I have coming out…"  
"Wow! Eight weeks? That's a really long time. When do they want you to start the tour?"  
"Uh… They… They want me to start … tomorrow." Rick falls silent.  
For a moment or two, Kate doesn't say anything. But then. "Tomorrow! That's ridiculous! Why so soon? Why no warning?"  
"They tell me it's a scheduling thing. Only in these next two months do they have the availability to get openings for book signings all in one string, and they also want me to expand where I go to. A lot of smaller cities are going to be visited. They want me to me as out there to the public as possible."  
"But that's tomorrow!" Kate repeats.  
"Well, at least I won't have to do any more for the rest of the year…" He says, like it's a silver lining.  
Just then, the microwave dings, and he reaches in and takes out her dinner. He turns back to her to see her retreating form just before she gets to the bedroom. She vanishes within, and the door slams shut.


	4. Chapter 4

**With the end don't jump to** **conclusions wait till the next to chapter.**

Rick has a rather fitful sleep. Every time he wakes up and looks over towards Kate, she's curled up on the farthest side of the bed away from him. 'This isn't my fault directly, but I really need to change my contract with Black Pawn. This eight week tour is ridiculous. I don't blame her for being angry at me. In effect, I allowed this to happen. I didn't make the contract specific enough. I have a family. Sometimes they need me for things that I can't predict. I didn't think I'd be doing this much traveling. I wish Kate was with me, and the girls, too. That would make this a lot less torture. But I need to keep in mind that it's just eight weeks. Next contract we'll change. I'll get Jim, and if we need it, I'll get another lawyer that also specializes in contract law.'

Just then, the alarm goes off. Kate reaches up, and turns it off and sits up in bed with her feet on the floor. She still doesn't turn to look at him. He sits up in bed, leaning on one elbow.

"Kate? Can I talk to you? Please?" He pauses a moment or two, to wait and see if she'll acknowledge him. "I know this sucks. I never thought they would do this kind of twist on the contract. I'm absolutely going to get it change for the next contract." He waits.

After another minute, she gets up, still ignoring him and goes into the ensuite, and closes the door. He can hear the water running as she takes a shower. He decided to get himself up and dressed, since he'd taken a shower last night. He doesn't leave the bedroom yet. He'd like to talk to her, but he'd prefer to do it without the girls around. Fortunately, they've learned not to walk into their parent's bedroom, and to knock instead unless they are scared.

Finally, Kate comes out, and goes to the closet and starts getting dressed.

"Kate? Could you talk to me? I know I let you down. I'd like to talk about it and resolve it, if we could?" He said in a worried voice. She is now finally ready for work. She gets her badge, purse and gets her gun out of the gun safe in the wall. She is halfway to the bedroom door when she stops. She turns to him and looks at him.

"At the moment… I'm very disappointed. We are having some problems and some disagreements right now. I don't think I can think of anything that I could say that could fix this problem.

"Would you like me to make you some breakfast, Kate? Maybe some eggs and bacon? Or something?"

"No, I'll just grab a cup of coffee, and head out. Thanks, anyways." And she headed out of the room. Through the open doorway, he saw her head to the kitchen counter. He got himself up and got dressed. By the time he left the room, he heard the front door close. 'At least she didn't slam it.' He thought. He hurried and got the girls up, and also went to talk to Joe. He had explained the book tour to him yesterday evening, and even Joe had said that Kate would not be happy about it. But for now, he needed his brother to watch the girls when Kate wasn't there. He then went to the girls room, and waked them up. "Come on, sleepy heads." He called playfully. "You have breakfast downstairs, and your Uncle Joe will be spending time with you. Do you want some pancakes today?"

Lacey sat up like she'd been shocked. "Pancakes! I want chocolate chips on mine."

Alexis added. "Can I have some too? Maybe with whipped cream?" She gave him her best puppy dog face, which Lacey duplicated as soon as she saw it, too.

"You betcha, girls. Just get dressed, brush your teeth, and come on down." And he closed their door and headed down to the kitchen.

He was busy making the fifth pancake when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Immediately, Alexis and Lacey came and sat on their stools at the central stove counter. Rick dramatically lifted the plate warmers off of each plate, and then added whipped cream for both of theirs. Rick figured that this was as good a time as ever.

"Girls, I have to go away for a while today. I have to do book signings again. But this time will be for two months. You need to be good for your mommy, and for Uncle Joe, who'll be around most of the time. And don't climb on him too much and break him like last time, okay?"

"But daddy! We like to ride Uncle Joe! He's a good horse. He goes all over the place!" Lacey said.

"I know, just don't hurt him, okay? And give him a feed break, if he needs one."

"Okay. Will we be able to talk you while you're gone?"

"You bet. Just have mommy or Uncle Joe use the Skype talking program. Alright?"

"You bet! We like to see you. I hope you have a good trip, daddy." Alexis said, sadly.

"And come home soon!" Said Lacey.

"I will. Give mommy lots of hugs from me, okay?"

"Yep!" they both said.

Rick got his stuff ready, and Joe came down the stairs. He started picking up his stuff and turned to Joe. "Take care of them, brother. I'll call every night."

"Later, Rick."

Rick made it to the airport in plenty of time. He had his suitcase, the laptop carrying bag, his phone, and credentials. The first flight was to Boston. Gina is on the flight, as well, but she had 4 pieces of luggage, plus her purse. The trip was short and very straight-forward. They got in around noon and headed for the hotel. Gina checked them in. She got two room keys. One for her room and one for Rick's. Rick got one for his room.

Rick wandered around the hotel, and took in some sights nearby. The next morning, they got up, went to the book store, and had a very good event. It seemed to fortell good sales. The fans all loved the sections he read for them. Rick posed for pictures for fans, for two nespapers, and some paparazzi. Gina stood in a number of them, too. She was dressed in a tight, gold lame dress, that came down to just above her knees. It had an over the shoulder collar, and she looked very nice in it. Each night he Skyped back to Kate and the girls. Unfortunately, each session was only about 10 minutes long. It was nice to talk, but it wasn't the same as being there.

The next morning, they caught their next flight, which was to Columbus, Ohio. Again, they got in around noon, and had some time for sight-seeing, and Gina tried to show Rick some of the sights. It seemed that knowledge of his arrival was known by news reporters and more paparazzi. Again, Rick posed for a few shots, and Gina was there too. The next day, they hit two book stores in town. Gina works a pink power suite and looked very professional, but also very pretty. They hadn't been here before, and it was nice seeing all the fans here. There were a few fans who asked him to sign their chests, but he declined, and offered to sign their books with more detailed notes for them, instead of the basic signature and greetings. At the end of the day, like the before, Rick Skyped again with his family. This time, at the end of the second day here, Kate asked him about Gina and why was she in the picture with him. He answered that he really hadn't paid much attention to her, because he was doing the tour for the fans, but he did agree that Gina seemed to be placing herself nearer to him than was typical. He made a mental note to ask her the next time photos were being taken.

Lastly, the next city was Indianapolis, and Rick wanted to go to see the race tracks for the Indy 500. Today, however was the book signing day, and the following was to be a tourist day. Again, he signed books from many fans, but this time, when they took photos, he made sure that Gina was a professional distance away from him. He felt bad doing it, because it made him feel a bit like a prima donna, but Gina made him uncomfortable. The following day, Rick had the chance to see the race cars at the track. He was like a kid in a candy store. He signed a few autographs, and agreed to put a mention of the racetrack in his next book, which was DEAD HEAT, and it would fit in perfectly. He left the track late in the afternoon, and had retired to his room. He had just started his Skype to Kate. Then, just as they were at a pause in the conversation, his hotel room door opened, and a very casually dressed Gina came in, fully in view of Kate, and Gina said. "Rick, have you seen my black lace bra?" leaving Rick with a stunned look on his face.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hold on tightly this is where it all goes down hill...fastly.**

Kate sees Gina just waltz into Rick's room, and asks him for her bra!?

"Rick!" Kate says in a severe growl. Rick is shocked, looking back and forth between Gina standing there with black lace panties in her hands, and looking for the matching bra.

"Uh… Um… Gina? Is there something that you lost?" Rick says, almost trembling with shock and confusion.

"Yeah, I thought maybe my bra would have been in the clothes you had here."

"Um, Gina? Wh- Why would they be in here?" Rick says, stammering.

"Well, I know they did the laundry for us last night, and I couldn't find it earlier today, so I thought I'd come over here and see if *you* had it. Do you?" She said, with a flirtation smile.

Rick is dumbstruck for a moment. Part of his is so thankful, and yet so embarrassed that Kate is watching this. Maybe he can try to explain what happened here in some kind of innocent reasoning.

"Well, um, let me- uh… take a look. See here? This is the pile of clothes that I had them clean last night. Um, pants, shirts, under things. Underthings!? Um, is this it? And he holds up the bra in two fingers, barely touching it, like it's covered by a deadly poison and he barely wants to touch it. Maybe this wasn't good for Kate to be watching. He takes a quick glance over to the computer screen and sees she has a really deadly glare on her face. Oh, God. Gina takes the bra.

"Thanks, Rick. These things show up when you least expect them." She says, over her shoulder. She walks out.

Instantly, Rick turns back to Kate and says. "I put all my clothes from yesterday into a pile and put them next to Gina's," He said in a very fast voice. I guess they must have mixed our laundry up... I suppose… I guess."

"Really, Rick?" Her glare is killing him.

"I swear! I don't know where it came from!"

"We'll talk to you tomorrow. Sleep tight, and don't let the bed bra bite." She says, with almost an evil smile on her face. But of course, there was far more dismay in her eyes when the connection ended.

Rick let his head fall forward into his hands. "Oh my God! What the heck!"

#

When she gets back to her room, Gina calls her secretary back in New York.

"Hi, Jackie. How are things going? Is there anything I need to worry about?"

"No, Miss Cowell. There haven't been any cancelations or requests for changes from the various bookstores. All is still on schedule. Why?"

"Well, my prank on Rick worked wonderfully. I had gone into his room earlier today when he was at the race track and placed my black lace bra into his clean clothes back from the laundry here in the hotel. When I walked in on him… It was PRICELESS! And the best part? I timed it so that he was talking to his family on the computer. His wife was staring bullets at him. Whew! I'm glad I'm not him."

"Uh, Miss Cowell? I thought it was just a joke between you and him?" Jackie asked.

"Well, I haven't told you about my wonderful idea. You know how we've had a few talks with Mr. Grimm, the owner? About how it would be *so* much better if Rick could play the playboy for us? How much better will it be if he really is single! If he got divorced, it would fit the bill perfectly. I even have more plans over the next few days. If this works out, he might actually break up by the end of the tour! Wouldn't that be great?"

"Um, yeah, Miss Cowell, that would be, um, really great!."

"Okay, Jackie. I'll check in every day or two to make sure we don't have any surprises. Talk to you later!"

"Goodbye, Miss Cowell." Jackie hangs up the phone. Then, she locates a file on her computer, and saves it to a CD, and puts in a CD case and then into her purse.

#

The next morning, Kate gets up. She has to go into the precinct and has to help get the girls ready. Joe will be up in about an hour, but she makes some spiced oatmeal and fruit for the girls, and some coffee and yogurt for herself. She is trying to keep her emotions from leaking out for the girls to see. She was pretty pissed on Skype last night. But Rick's explanation seemed okay. She still had confidence in him. They'd been together for almost 10 years now, and he loves the girls and her. Gina is very beautiful. "But mix-ups happen all the time. It was just an honest mistake by the laundry." She needs to talk to Lanie. Get another opinion.

Kate walks into the morgue on Monday and saw Lanie working on putting away the tools and supplies she used while working on a body.

"Hey, girlfriend! How are things going?"

"Well, the girls are going pretty well. Joe has been taking them to the park every day. Joe even told me that a few of the ladies there have even hit on him, thinking they were his daughters. So far, he hasn't had much luck on explaining that they aren't his, and yet also holding the attention of those ladies."

"Well, in that long explanation, I didn't hear a single word about your husband. Why might that be?" Lanie said, with a teasing smile.

"Gosh, Lanie. I'm having a problem. Rick's done book signings before, but never for so long. I'm worried that being apart for so long is going to kill our marriage. We've been trying to Skype each night, and although it's not the same, it's been nice. Once, we set up the laptop on the dining room table, so that Joe, the girls, and I could be eating while Rich was eating in his hotel room. That was actually nice. But last night…" Kate paused.

Lanie's sixth sense perks up. "What happened, honey?" She said with warmth and feeling in her voice.

"Well, we were talking, and Rick was telling me about going to a race track today to visit, and for research. And all of a sudden, Gina walks right in. She's holding what looked like some black panties in her hands, and she right out asks Rick where her black lace bra is!"

"What?! Oooh, when he gets back, I'm going to kill him, and they'll never find or identify the body!"

"No,, Lanie. The bra ended up in the laundry clothes that were done overnight and it was folded up in the pile of his clothes."

"Come on, girl, how the heck did her bra get into his laundry? This sounds suspicious." Lanie said, grimacing.

"Well, he says that they both put their clothes in the bags outside their doors, and because their doors are right next to each other, they might have… mixed them."

"Now, Kate. You need to be honest with me. I've known Rick ever since you got out of the Academy. He's been true to you all along. He did sign a few chests in the beginning, before he knew better, but we learned him on that. He doesn't let the publishers set him up with anyone else for the events he attends if it can't be you. Um… Except Gina, of course. Do you think… How has your intimate life been during the last few months?"

At that moment, Perlmutter came bustling through. He had his ME bag, said "Excuse me, I am NOT here. I need to get some of the victim forms." He took some out of Lanie's desk, and was gone.

"Um… well… we've been having problems in that area, lately…" Kate said, hesitantly.

"What? He doesn't want to? Or he wants to do it too much?"

"You know how I told you that I'd like to have another kid? Well I told that to him about a week ago, just before he left. But he told me the same thing he'd said before. I have to work, he has his obligations as a writer for Black Pawn, and it would be a lot of work…"

"Has he forgotten that it's you that carries that little parasite for 9 months? Has he forgotten that it's you that has to feed it when it's born? What burden is it to him? You even have Joe for babysitting!" Lanie almost yelled, exasperatedly.

"Well, actually, when we had the twins, he was totally involved. He helped massage various body parts that hurt, he got food for me, he made me feel like a queen! And then, when they were born, it's true that, because we wanted to breast feed, I did almost all of that, but I also used a pump and he did those, all the time! He was a great father… It's just that… lately, we haven't *tried* much, and I miss being with him." Kate hung her head.

"Wow! He really *has* been a good dad. I thought you did it all." Lanie paused. "But it's been what? Over six years since then? What's he waiting for? A written invitation?"

"Yeah, that's my problem. I guess it's been over two months since our last time… together." Kate laments.

"Okay, so far, things are looking good for old hubby. He's busy, but he's not being a jerk. But I think you need to have a loooong talk with him one of these nights, so that when he comes back, he can give you a very nice evening out on the town, roses, candles, and love. Then he can finish up… and then… get *nasty* with you!" Lanie says, snickering.

"I guess so. I'll talk to him about that this coming Friday. He has 3 days in Chicago, so that should give me plenty of time to explain the realities of life to him!" She said, with a mischievous smile.

"Atta, girl! You go, girl! I'll talk to you soon, okay?"

"You got it! See you later, Lanie!" Kate said with a big smile.

#

For Rick, however, it's the same old routine. Fly out to the next city, Gina gets room keys for both their rooms; Rick gets a room key for his room. Like normal, the first day is a day to look around. Detroit is a great city. Signing on Sunday, and sightseeing on Monday. While he was there, he had a chance to go see Belle Isle Park. It was so beautiful and calm there. He did see *one* fan who happened to have one of his books with her. He signed it happily, and she went off, talking on her cell phone to a friend. That night, he spoke to Kate again. Because he'd gotten back to the hotel late, the girls were already in bed. Kate seemed a bit distracted, but he felt bad about two nights ago, so he didn't push. He did find out that Joe had finally gotten a date from one of the ladies at the park, and that they'd be going out this coming Friday night. He told Kate to wish him well, and to always be a gentleman. He asked where Joe was taking the lady, and Kate said she'd already arranged for them to go to a nice restaurant. She used Rick's name to arrange it, she told him with a smirk. But it should hopefully turn out good. They ended the call with a virtual kiss, and signed off.

#

The next day, however, Kate was in the bullpen, when she saw a news story from Detroit, who was quoted as saying "I was so lucky! I met my favorite author, Richard Castle! He signed my book, and gave me a very passionate kiss! Wow! That's my kind of celebrity!" In the news story that she watched on TV, the girl looked slightly guilty as she finished. The news anchor went on about how "It must be nice being so charming, and so sought after. You can get any girl you want! I wonder what his wife has to say about that?" As the news story ended, Kate stalked out of the bullpen, and went to sit in the women's lockerroom for a few minutes. "Did I miss something? Is he really bored with me? What did I do wrong? Can I fix this?" Kate didn't cry, but she did feel tears starting to build up in her eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

**Thanks Frank. We're getting to the breaking point of our story very soon.**

Kate got herself into order and left the ladies room. When she entered the bullpen, she went over to her desk. She tried to continue with her previous paperwork. She was about 5 minutes into it again, when she heard laughing coming from the Break Room. A few seconds later, she saw Espo come out, talking to one of the uni's. He wasn't bothering to keep his voice down.

"Yeah, I told Lanie that any real man can get a date with whatever chick they want. A *real* man doesn't have to worry about things like that. I'm sure that Rick is just enjoying himself and having fun with the ladies. That's what I'd do. 'Course, I wouldn't get married, either." As the Uni walked away for the elevator, Espo looked up and saw Kate sitting there, not 10 feet from him. As he sees's her, she glares at him with angry, hurt eyes. In an instant, he realized she'd heard him. He didn't bother apologizing, he just sat down at his desk and kept his head down and started working on his own paperwork. Fortunately, they get a case, and Anderson leads them over to the South Pier, where 3 bodies have washed up. They get stumped because of any identification on the bodies, but when Lanie gets them back to the lab, she is ultimately able to get fingerprints. It turns out that they were all mob enforcers. It might be one family seems to be putting pressure on another house..

"Kate? I want you to track down our Organized Crime liaison, and try and find out why these three were killed. Esposito and I will go and talk to the neighbors of each of these victims." Anderson instructs.

"Got it, boss," Kate says and doesn't even respond to Esposito. She just turns and heads for the elevator up to the Organized Crime division. When she gets up there, she is told to talk to Detective Frank Daniels.. As she approaches him, she notices he's tall and handsome, with a kind smile on his face. Not quite the cop you'd expect to be fighting mob bosses and their people. "Detective Daniels? I'm Detective Beckett, from Homicide." Kate asks.

Although it is very quick, Roth gives her a once-over. He smiles and asks. "How can I help you, Detective Beckett?" He replies.

"We picked up three bodies down at the South Piers today. They are Vito Scarlotti, Raul Scarlotti, and Tommy Calderone. They were each killed with a double-tap to the back of the head. Because of your liaison duties, my boss said you might be able to shed some light on these guys, and help us try to figure out what's going on." Kate informed him.

"Well… The Scar brothers, huh? Both of them were informants for us. We used them to keep track of any major activity. But Tommy, he seemed to be a normal mob guy, with no one using him for information as far as I know. It might be that another law enforcement agency might have been using him. I'd need to check some of my contacts with the feds, to be sure." He looked concerned.

Kate picked up on that and asked. "Was there anything that they were providing information on that might be going down soon? Any shifts in the power structure? Should we be expecting more of these killings?"

Roth looked at her and realized that she didn't miss anything. "Yeah. There actually is. One of the families is planning on expanding the business further, into New Jersey, and they're going to need to make sure it all goes without problems." He paused. "Unfortunately, there may be a few more of these coming up in the next week or so." He smiled then. "You know, you'd probably do really well here in this division. Ever thought of transferring from Homicide over to here? I'd love to work with you." He said with a warm smile.

"That's kind of you to say. But for now, I'm happy where I'm at. Maybe we'll see each other around in the future, especially if this case goes on for a while. Please let me know what you find out from your federal contacts, alright?"

"You got it!" He smiled broadly.

That night, just after she got home, Kate got a call from Lanie.

"Hey, girl! How's it going? Are you having a problem with Espo? He was all grumpy today, and when I asked him about it, he said that you're giving him the cold shoulder." Lanie asked her.

"Ugh! Yeah, he pissed me off today with what he said. I didn't want to yell at him, so I'm just ignoring him, for now."

"What?! What did he say?"

"Some crap about *real* men, and how they can date whoever they want without worrying about consequences."

"Good God! Is he doing drugs? He mentioned something like that to me, earlier this morning. I told him that any guy that wants to go play around like that is not the guy for most of us. I ain't sure who yet, but when I set my sights on someone, I want them with *me* and not with other women." Lanie was quiet for a moment. "I'm going to have to learn him some about relationships. This isn't the 1960's with free love and free sex. Not no more."

"I know, Lanie. Did you see that news story about Rick kissing that fan girl? Just girl to girl, I got to tell you, it hurt a lot. I wish I could be there with him, and guard him." Kate felt a blush over her face when she said that. "Well… I know I can't shoot other women, but he's only been gone for a little more than a week. There have been times before when he used to sign chests and be in photos with women, but nothing like this! Why is this happening now? Am I boring? Do I stay away from home too much? ". Kate said, with a strong sense of worry in her voice.

"No,, sweetie. You are forgetting two very important things. First, and most important, we haven't heard Rick's side of the story yet. Have you spoken with him yet today?"

"Um, no…" Kate said, rather guiltily.

"Okay, then talk to him later today. And second, surely you know that the media will put *anything* out there that will sell newspapers or air time. Almost everything they say is blown out of proportion. You know that you've seen it. Not just from Rick's career, but also with what happens on very public crime cases."

"I know, Lanie. The murder we had last week of that rap star? They were accusing us of not trying to solve it. Mostly it was because we couldn't get any witnesses to tell us what they saw, but the press kept saying it was because of racial reasons like there are people we won't help. I know what you're talking about."

"So talk to your man, Kate! He's been by your side for about 10 years. 10 days is nothing. See you in the morning, Kate." And Lanie hung up.

Now it was getting to be time for dinner. She got some macaroni noodles out and started cooking them. Then she got some cheese out and started heating it up. She called to the girls. "Alexis! Lacey! It's time for dinner! Are you ready?"

After about a minute delay, she heard the girls door open. "We're coming, mommy!" Alexis yelled.

"Don't forget, girls. Wash your hands for dinner, or there's no dinner for you. And I'm making macaroni and cheese!"

"I love mac and cheese, mommy!" Lacey called out from the downstairs bathroom. About 30 seconds later, she was coming out, closely followed by her sister. They went to the counter, where Kate had laid out the plastic dishes for them to use. They sat on their stools, and after Kate mixed the noodles and cheese and a few seasonings, she served it up for them.

"Do you girls want some water? Or some juice?" They both said "Water" and Kate filled their glasses. They spent the next 20 minutes sitting and talking about what they did with their Uncle Joe today. After they finished eating and cleaned up the kitchen, they all went into the living room to watch a movie. Alexis wanted to watch Lady and the Tramp, but Lacey wanted to watch 101 Dalmations. They were getting into a bit of a heated argument until Kate chose for them to watch Pocahontas. And as she expected, they both loved it. Of course, they had just watched it two days ago.

Soon, it was getting time for bed. Alexis asked Kate. "Will we be able to talk to daddy tonight?"

"I doubt it, pumpkin. He's in a different time zone from us. For him, it's an hour earlier. He might not call until you're in bed."

"Oooh! I hope he calls earlier. I miss daddy!" Lacey said.

"Yeah, it's been two whole days since we talked! That's like forever!" Alexis added.

"Well, your bed-time is in just 15 minutes. That barely enough time to change, wash up, and brush your teeth. If daddy calls during that time, I'll let you talk to him, but only if he can call in time for you before bed. Okay?"

"Okay", Both girls said disappointedly. "Will you tuck us in when we're ready?" Alexis pleaded.

"Of course. I wouldn't miss it." Kate then kissed them each on the forehead and sent them upstairs. But just in case, she set up the laptop in case Rick called. She was actually happy that the girls weren't going to be there for the conversation because she wanted to talk to Rick alone.

Tucking in, and goodnight kisses were uninterrupted by any Skype calls. About an hour after the girls had gone to sleep, the call came in, and Kate opened the connection. She was feeling a bit hesitant because she didn't know quite how to handle this.

Hi, babe! It's so great to see you! How are you? How are the girls?" Rick asked, right off.

"Hey, Rick. The girls are good. They are enjoying their daily trips to the park, and things at the precinct are working well. We just picked up a triple homicide. It looks mob-related."

"Were all the bodies found in the same place?" He asked.

"Yeah, they were all found down at the South Pier. Why?"

"I'll bet that they are silencing people. If the bodies were in different places, they'd probably been killed in unrelated situations. But if they're all together, they were probably all killed for the same reason. I'm guessing you might have more within the week."

"Wow! That's exactly what Detective Roth said."

"Um, who's Detective Roth?" Rick asked curiosity showing.

"Oh, he's the Organized Crime liaison I talked with."

"Oh, okay. Well, I'm glad I'm thinking on the same wavelength!"

After a slight pause for about a half a minute or so, Kate spoke up. "Rick? I need to ask you something?"

"Sure, babe! What's up?" He said back, animatedly.

"Um, there was a news story on this morning about someone reporting that they were a fan, who saw you at a park somewhere, and that you" At this point, she tried to speak like the announcer had. "Kissed her passionately, after signing her book…. Is that true?" Kate said in a slightly smaller voice.

"Of course not, babe. I did *see* a fan at the park, and I did sign her book, but aside from a smile for her, there was no touching and no kissing. Why would they say that? I *know* better than to do that. I don't *want* to do that. There's only you, Kate. Do you believe me, Kate?"

Kate wasn't feeling too good right now. Everything that Rick said totally fit with her understanding and belief in him. But there was this tiny, stupid little voice in her head, that was asking her. 'Is he lying to me? No! I know Rick. He wouldn't do that.'

"Sorry, Rick. The media always makes a mountain out of a molehill." Kate paused again, reassuring herself. "So what did you do today, in Milwaukee?" She asked him.

"Things were great today. We had our first book signing today. Tomorrow we have another one. Plus, I just found out that James Patterson is having a book launch party in Chicago, on Friday night. I thought I'd head over and say hi, and support a colleague."

"That sounds like fun. I wish I was there with you. I like Patterson's books. Maybe you could get him to sign one for me? Tell him I'll give *him* a passionate kiss if he does." Kate said, teasing him with a mischievous smile.

"I don't think I'm going to mention that reward to him, but I *will* get the book signed for you. How's that?"

"Okay, Rick. Take care, and maybe keep safe. Alright?"

"You bet, babe. Love you!"

"Love you, too, Rick," Kate said.

#

The rest of Milwaukee went like a charm. Pretty much in and out. Chicago, on the other hand, was crazy. There were fans at the airport to see him when he came thru after picking up his bag, and Gina picked up her four bags. There was a TV reporter there, doing a piece on celebrities, and Rick fit the bill. He spent about 5 minutes talking to the woman, and then he and Gina headed out for their hotel. The book signing for the first day was a breeze. The fans had lots of good questions for him, asking him what they thought of real-life cops, and what was coming next. It was a challenge coming up with how much to tell them, without spoiling things for them. They really liked the two readings he gave. Then next day, he had an earlier book signing, which made it easy for him to get to James Patterson's book party on time. Although he came with Gina, he didn't hold her hand, or let her hold his arm, for the photographers waiting for people to arrive..

Unbeknownst to Rick, Gina was not fazed by that. She had her own plan still in action. During the launch party, she had arranged for a photographer to be waiting for her cues on when to take pictures. About 15 minutes into the party, she walked up and hugged Rick tightly. To Rick, she said "Congratulations, Rick. Pre-orders have topped two million!" Although he didn't see it at the time, she had grabbed him in such a way, and the photographer had timed the shot, so as to hide his reaction to the hug. Then, when people were toasting James Patterson, and several of the women at the party were standing with, and giving cheek kisses to James, Gina walked up and kissed Rick on the cheek, she timed it so that Rick was smiling from something that Patterson had said. Lastly, at the end of the party, Gina faked being drunk, and asked Rick to assist her in getting out of the building and to their limo car. She made sure that she had an arm around Rick, and although her instability wasn't really visible in a still shot, it *looked* like Rick was heading out, to take Gina with him.

All those pictures were immediately uploaded to one of the news sleaze papers in Chicago. They were also available online, too. Gina had paid the photographer to put appropriately salacious captions for each image.

The next day, Kate is checking out the internet, seeing how Rick is doing when she comes across the images. The hug and the kiss were worrisome, but the caption for the going home picture captured it all. "Young playboy best-selling author heading home with his reward for simply selling lots of books"

When Kate saw this, she was floored. She cried to herself a bit and was lucky enough to be able to prevent the girls or Joe from seeing her reaction. For the next few days, when Rick called, she came up with reasons to cut it short. She used the excuse of working another conference call with some federal contacts about the mob case she was working. In each case, she was not hiding her feelings very well.

"Kate?" Rick asked. "Is there anything wrong? You seem bothered by something. Can you tell me what it is?"

"Um, no, it's just this case I'm working on. I've had all my focus on it, and I'm sorry that I haven't been total with it, here in this call."

"Okay, Kate. You can always talk to me if you're having a problem. That's what I'm here for. I love you, you know?" Rick said to her with great concern, and sincerity.

"That's okay. I'm fine. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay? Thanks. Bye." And she disconnected the call.

During the rest of that day, and the next, a number of celebrity gossip sites on the web, and on TV were speculating if there were problems for Rick Castle. But Rick didn't see any of that. Gina purposely kept him as busy as possible with photo ops, interviews (with approved subject lists of questions), and signing books for fans. Because of that, Rick doesn't see the huge freight train that is heading for him, because he is totally focused on the book tour.

Unfortunately, Kate *is* aware. All the stories about a marriage break up and possible cheating are making the kettle simmer to a higher and higher boil.

What will happen when it boils over?


	7. Chapter 7

**Thank you Frank.**

 **After every storm there's always a rainbow. Basically the story will end on a happy note but we need to get through to get to that. But first here's a little drizzle before the big storm.**

The next four days are stops in Seattle and San Francisco. The number of fans were really increasing. A few fans recognized him on the plane and praised his books, as well as flirted with them. He tried his best to be nice to them and to be charming, but that was all. Finally, they landed at Seattle. After they each get their bags and get in the limo, they are heading for the Four Seasons Hotel. When they arrive, Gina goes and checks them in, once again getting a key for her room and Rick's room, and another key for Rick's room which she gives to him. Gina notices a few gossip magazines with Rick on the cover, but she successfully keeps Rick focused on other things, so he doesn't see them. They do the book signing later in the afternoon, and then a brief meet and greet between other professionals in the industry, for a buffet dinner. After that, Rick goes back to his room, and tries to have a conversation with Kate, but she shuts him down very quickly, by telling him that the girls were late for their bath that evening and that she'd need to talk to him tomorrow. Rick, was disappointed off course to hear that he won't get a chance to spend time talking to Kate about family stuff. He can tell that she has something on her mind, but she brushes it off as the mob case she's been working on.

The next day, Rick wants to go and check out things to see in Seattle. But, he ends up only having time to visit the Space Needle before he gets a call from Gina telling him that she has some information for him to examine for their Las Angeles stop. He heads back to the hotel and spends the rest of the afternoon looking into it. It looks like Gina has set up numerous events for Rick while he's there. Four book signings and readings, two book launch parties for other authors, and very limited time for him to look around the city.

The next morning, he pulls Gina aside.

"Why is there so much information I have to study for each of our stops, Gina? It's like I need to memorize lots of information about the various people I'll meet, as if there'll be a test in the morning. Why all the preparation?"

"Rick, think for a minute. We are trying to increase your book sales, as well as enhance the amount of people who know who your are. In other words, your Q-Score. The higher your score, the more that you are in the public eye. And the more that you are in the public eye, the more they'll want to buy your books. It's a win-win situation. We get lots of new customers, and you get to meet more people and show them that they are not just faces to you. Your familiarity with them will go a long way when they tell other people how personable you are. It's just part of the job, that's all." She says to him and smiles to him as if she was his closest friend.

"Okay. I'm only asking because, in all the previous 6 years, we've never had to do this much prep for a book tour. It's just unusual." He replied to her.

"Yes, it's true. And because we're doing it now, look at how sales have increased. In just the last two weeks, we've generated more than four times the amount of pre-orders that you've ever had before. By the time this tour is done, you'll probably at least tie Patterson, and maybe even surpass him. You've already tied Cornell, not to mention Lehane and King. If this works out well, the only persons you will have over you will be Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle. You're going to be riding the gravy train! Be happy!" She said, happily. Rick smiles weakly and nods his head.

The next stop is San Francisco. Rick is impressed by the cable cars. The steep hills and the traffic is a big draw for him, not to mention he had heard of the twisty street called Lombard Street. He was able to convince the driver to take them down it, as a slight side trip to the Chancellor Hotel on Union Square. He couldn't be sure, but he thought there might have been 9 twists and turns on the way down Lombard street. He swore to himself that he'd take Kate and the girls here, the first chance he got. Maybe for Christmas vacation, if Kate could manage the time off.

When they got to the hotel, they found that the book signing was at a bookstore only two blocks away and because it was so close, Gina had scheduled it for only half an hour after they got to the hotel. So they hurried up, got changed, and got over there. This was a big success, well over 300 fans to sign books for. Quite a few of them wanted their chests signed, and even when he demurred, a small minority nearly demanded he do it. They had to call security to help calm things down but not before one of the women had quickly jumped close to him and she was able to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. "It was near his lips! I kissed him!" the woman shouted, as she was taken away. Rick chose to not press charges. Aside from the fact that he didn't have the time to appear in court, he also knew it wouldn't help his image. But he also knew that, in a sense, it gave encouragement for other fans to try the same thing themselves.

Fortunately, there were no more incidents the rest of the time in San Francisco. Plus, because he'd read up on all the people he'd meet in Los Angeles, he was able to visit Fisherman's Wharf, and even a chance to stop at Golden Gate Park. This was the good part of book tours. Seeing all the places that he wanted to take his family to, to plan for the future, and make his family happy.

Now, the biggest stop of the entire trip was upon them. Los Angeles for four days. Rick was to meet many book publishing professionals (and writers) and even a few movie producers who had offered to buy the rights for a Nikki Heat movie. Some of the rumors that Gina had told him about indicated that nearly every beautiful brunette starlet in Hollywood and even a few blondes and red-heads and applied for the part. It was heady stuff. They flew in very early on July 1st, and even still, there were quite a few fans waiting for him at the airport.

Most are women fans, and a very few try to fondle him rather aggressively. One time occurs when he is walking through the airport to get to his luggage. The woman comes up to him and attempts to kiss him. But because of the talk Rick had had with Kate, he was ready for it and ducks away from the woman just in time. He's making his way away from her, but she gets in a last goosing of Rick. He is extremely started by that and has to do his best to maintain his composure, even if he does blush furiously. Gina, on the other hand, is about 25 feet behind him, and she inwardly cheers at what the fan has done. If this is happening, not even 2 weeks into this book tour, she can only imagine how good it will get by the ending.

They made their way to the hotel and got there by 10 AM. They had a book signing at 11, and at 4 PM, followed by a party at a Los Angeles hot spot for aggressive and business people. At both book signings, they had over 500 people each time. But the party that night was in some ways a bit of a trial for him.

When they were getting ready to go, Gina came into his room and told him what she wanted him to wear. It had to his nice, tight blue button-down shirt. He had to have at least the top four buttons unbuttoned to show off his chest and upper body musculature, and she wanted the blue shirt, to emphasize his brilliant blue eyes.

It was true. There were a few times when Gina almost felt herself getting lost while looking into them, but she was lucky enough so far, for Rick to have never caught her doing it. Lastly, she had him wear his tightest pair of black jeans, with no jacket at all. As Gina left his room, she kept thinking about how Rick looked, and how she needed to get him into bed, to find out if he was as good in bed, as he looked. She hoped so. If all went well, she hoped that in a few months, maybe a few weeks, she could find out. That put a big grin on her face.

They arrived at the Playhouse, and it was already packed, with gorgeous women, movers and shakers, and not a few hangers-on. Gina was dressed in an extremely low-cut outfit, with diamond-shaped openings on either side of her lower torso, and a slit up the center of her not-quite-knee-length skirt, to barely 10 inches below her waist. As she walked, her hips swayed, and almost ever step she took, her legs would protrude, and they were in fabulous shape. All the way over, in the limo, the short dress was hanging off either side of her legs, putting them both in full view. Rick kept his eye-line out the window whenever possible, and when she asked him a question that required him to look at her, he did his best to (mostly) look at her eyes, before looking away again. But in the club, she led the way in and got a lot of looks by the men (and not a few women) in the club. Fortunately, Rick knew who they were there to talk to first, and had memorized the face and name. Rick saw the man and called to Gina when he saw him before head off to talk to him. Their talk was short but to the point. The man was smoking a cigar, even though there were signs saying NO SMOKING in several places in the establishment. 'Well,' Rick thought to himself. 'being powerful can sure bypass a lot of limitations the rest of us have to obey.'

"So, Mr. Jackson, when you talk about doing the movie, what do you envision that my role would be in the process?" Rick asked, starting the process rolling.

"Son, you got yerself a few choice pieces of meat here. You could just simply sign over the rights, for a straight-up monetary consideration, or for a percentage of the box office. Maybe 2%? Or, you could wanna be involved in the screenwriting part, but that would be for less of a monetary amount. Plus, you might want to be involved in the casting process if you'd like." The man said with an obvious leer, intending to put forth the idea that the likelihood of a 'casting couch' would play a part. "Why don't you give my secretary a call, and she can fax over the possibilities, at your earliest convenience. We'd love to do some business with you. And some of the women who want the part, are just hot to get hired if you know what I mean."

Rick had the wherewithal to avoid punching him in the face at that point but instead said. "Thanks, Mr. Jackson. I will talk this over with my publicist and attorney. I'll give you a call in a day or so and let you know what I decide, okay?"

Mr. Jackson smiled at Rick and put out his cigar in the drink of the man next to him because he didn't look. The other man looked up, recognized Jackson, and turned and walked away. Rick noticed.

"Okay, Gina, who's next?" Rick asked, with some dismay showing.

"I think you're going to like this next one. I'm sure of it!" She said with a sly smile.

"Well, the write-up for the person's said she was Ophelia Williams, and that she published magazines. Nothing further."

"Don't worry, Rick. Just wait and see. Judge for yourself.". They walked about 20 feet down along the bar to the first table near the end. There were three women sitting there. One of them, Rick recognized as Ms. Williams.

"Hello, ! It's wonderful to be able to meet you. The way your blouse highlights your eyes is truly beautiful."

At this, the woman had a huge grin on her face. She turned to Gina. "Miss Cowell? Everything you said was right on. I think he'll do perfectly." Then the woman turned her attention back to Rick and looked him over much like a predator would do.

"Rick? I have a proposition for you. I run a magazine, and I'd love to do an article on you. An expose, of sorts. We'd have to do an entire photo shoot." Ms. Williams looked to the redhead to her left. "Janie? Do you think we can get Donald to do the imaging? Look at his face! And his body. He'd be at least in the top 20, maybe even the top 10!"

Janie looked back to Ms. Williams. "Yep, I'm sure Donald would jump at the chance to do the pictures. We can get some clothes by Armani, Hugo Boss, or maybe Ralph Lauren. Can you see him in one of Ralph's suits? The readers would be dying!"

Rick decided that his confusion had gone on for long enough. "Um, Ms. Williams? Um, what magazine are we talking about? I definitely understand the concept of the image making the man, but I'm wondering what you have in mind."

"Oh, didn't Ms. Cowell tell you? I manage PlayGirl magazine. You'd probably be the TOP Man of the Month for this year. In fact, if we made you the Christmas Man of the Month, it would probably be the top seller of the entire year! You'd be compensated, accordingly. What do you think?"

Rick briefly glances over at Gina. He can see this eager gleam in her eyes like she, herself, would be one of those self-same readers. Still, he doesn't want to make enemies here. Not of PlayGirl, nor of Gina. So he does what he did for Mr. Jackson. He thanks, Ms. Williams for the offer, and tells her that his publicist would be in touch with them. When she offers him her card, he takes her hand graciously, and lightly kisses her knuckles. This makes Ms. Williams blush like a schoolgirl. Rick has a brief thought that he keeps to himself that he was surprised that a woman in her business would be blushing, but he just wanted to leave the meeting on friendly terms of hope, and not just tell her no, right to her face.

After that, Gina takes Rick around to numerous other people that evening. One thing that Rick is able to hide, for the most part, is that almost every time he walks to see another person, a woman will give his butt a quick pinch as they go by. Some got just a little, but one woman pretty much grabbed his entire cheek and squeezed! That made Rick blush.

At last, the evening was drawing to a close. As they were on their way to see a late arrival that Gina wanted him to talk to, a young woman, in a rather daring dress cut low, right down to the navel, came right up to him and grabbed him around the neck and kissed him right on the lips. Amazingly, there were camera flashes going off even slightly *before* the woman's lips met his. Immediately, he felt her tongue, thrusting for entrance, but he denied it. Although he didn't want to simply knock the woman down, he quickly pushed her away and strode out of the club, with Gina hurrying behind him, smiling widely. 'That's the next step completed' She thought to herself. Rick found their limo, waited for a moment for Gina to catch up, and he had the driver take them back to the hotel immediately.

#

Meanwhile, back in New York, Kate had invited Lanie over for another heart-to-heart girl talk.

"Lanie? Have you seen all the news stories about Rick on tour? If you believe them, it's impossible that he's not having dates every night. I don't want to believe it, but with all these stories, and all the rumors. Not to mention the occasional pictures."

"Yeah, I've seen 'em and read about; em, too. Page Six is having a field day about Rick. I agree that I wish he wasn't doing this damn tour, but just like you risking your life with criminals and working late, he does the book tours. It's part of your jobs. I still have faith in him, but then, I'm not the one married to him."

Kate pauses for a moment. Lanie can sense that she needs to talk about something that's important, so she waits till Kate is ready.

"I'm worried. Because of my job, I've found myself needing to focus on the practical, and less on dreams. I know that may not be the most romantic way to do things, but I have the girls to worry about." Kate pauses again. "What I'm worried about is… Um, hypothetically, will we … will we have to … get a divorce? Hypothetically?"

Lanie looks at Kate. Hypothetical or not, this is a critical topic. "Girl, if you are worried about the girls… and yourself, then… yes, you'd have to consider the possibility. But considering you've been together for about 10 years now, your marriage has already stood the test of time. You've had a chance to see each other's strength and weaknesses. It's not new to you, you've adapted to each other's lives. Could things go that way? Yeah, there's a small possibility. But aren't you putting the cart before the horse? It's one thing to bee seen in pictures with women, but it's a whole 'nother animal if he were caught in bed with someone, or at least on a personal date with them. Has he done anything like that?"

No..ooo, he hasn't. But I don't know how far I should let it go, do you? What is my-" Kate stops talking because both she and Lanie could hear a strange sound.

They are both sitting in the kitchen, having a glass of wine, but the sound is coming from the living room. After a few seconds, they hear it again. It's sobbing. Kate gets up quickly and goes over to the girls who were watching TV over there. But the sound from the TV is muted. Kate see's Alexis holding and trying to comfort Lacey.

"What's wrong, Lacey? Did you hurt yourself? What happened?" She asks in a concerned voice.

Alexis tries to explain. "We were watching the TV and Lacey just started crying. I dunno why."

Kate bends over Lacey and holds her. "Lacey? Can you tell Mommy what's wrong? Please?"

Lacey is still sobbing quietly but tries to get the words out. "Mommy make… make Daddy go… way! Don't want… lose Daddy! Love m- my Daddy! Don't make Daddy go away! No ba-vorce." She starts sobbing again.

"Oh, honey. Daddy's not going away. Daddy's been having some problems with his job, and Laney was just helping me to make good decisions to help you, that's all." She cuddles Lacey up into her arms until Lacey's sobs finally end. But as she's holding Lacey, Alexis speaks up.

"Mommy, what kind of problems do Daddy have? Can we help? I wanna help Daddy!" Alexis starts sobbing a bit, herself. Kate reaches an arm over to Alexis and gathers her into her arms as well.

'Girls, don't worry, I will always take care of you. I know your Daddy loves you very much, and I'm sure he'd always spend time with you. Now, hush, okay? I'm here, and I'm going to hold you, and make sure that you don't get hurt, okay?" She pleads with the girls.

"Okay, Mommy." "Yes, Mommy," the girls both say, and their sobbing decreases a goodly bit. Kate calls quietly to Lanie. "Can you help me get the girls to bed? I think they've had enough for one day." Lanie walks over and picks up Lacey while Kate holds Alexis close in her arms. They walk up to the girls room, and help them both get changed and ready for bed. Kate sits with the girls and reads them a Dr. Seuss book, THE CAT IN THE HAT, which they had always loved when Rick read it to them. Hee did all the voices different from one another. Eventually, the girls were breathing steadily, and Kate crept silently out of the room.

About a moment afterward, Lacey mumbled a question to Alexis. Since Alexis couldn't understand, she said. "What?"

Lacey repeated her question. "Do you think we lose Daddy? I can't lose Daddy. He reads THE CAT the best. Mommy does good, but Daddy's voices are best. The most fun. I don't want Daddy to go away. I love my Daddy. How can I keep Daddy with us?" And Lacey sobbed again.

Alexis didn't know what to say. "We will always love Daddy. We make Mommy not throw Daddy away. He loves us always."

Both of the girls sobbed themselves to a fitful, unhappy sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

**Predictions for next chapter heavy Storm with lighting and thunder with strong winds cause things are about to get a whole lot messy.**

The next morning, Rick gets up and gets ready for the events for the day. He wears a nice button down indigo shirt, with his dark brown suit coat and matching pants. He makes sure he has five or six permanent markers in his inside pockets, his other belongings, and heads downstairs to the hotel's buffet breakfast. Midway thru eating, he gets a call from Gina telling him he needs to get up and get ready. He informs him he's already up and eating at the buffet. She tells him she'll see him downstairs in about 15 minutes. While he's waiting, and while he enjoys the very good café lattes. He decides which exerpts he'll read to the fans today, and finally Gina appears. She only grabs his, as yet, untouched orange juice and drinks it down. Rick is successful at hiding his dismay at her action.

"Come on. We have a car waiting to take us to our stops. She gives him a smile, but even though she looks like she's trying to be helpful and friendly, Rick can see the calculating mind behind her eyes, and he doesn't get a good feeling about it. He asks if they can stop briefly so that he can pick up some of the regular celebrity magazines he likes to read when he's home, but Gina doesn't let him.

"Rick, you have too much stuff to do today, rather than waste your time just frittering your day away with your nose in a magazine. Maybe later, if we get a chance. But even though this big book tour is spread out over about eight weeks, we've got a whole crap-load of stuff to do to keep the fans happy, and the book store owners happy, too. Capiscė?" She lectures him almost as if he is a little schoolboy who can't even tie his own shoes, and as much as he maintains his facade, he begins to decide that this will be the last tour with Gina, so help him God.

Both book signings work very well. Lines are out the door, and when he tells his fans that he'll be at the next location in an hour, a number of them yell out "We'll see you there!" And they smile and head out to their cars, leaving Rick and Gina to go and get a quick bite to eat before the second location.

When they get there, not only is the line out the door, but the line goes halfway down the side of the building.

"Gina, this evening is supposed to be only a dinner of some kind, right?" Rick asks.

"Yeah, Ricky. I had thought we could find a nice spot to get comfortable and relax. Why?"

"Well, I have a strong suspicion that I might either be very late, or I might have to skip it."

"Why, Rick?" She asks him, concern on her face for the change in plans for getting him alone tonight.

"Look at all these people! They are all here to see me. I'm not going to turn them away. If it goes that late, I can always get a quick dinner at my hotel room. These people are buying my books. They deserve my time. It's worth at least that. If you like, you'll be able to take the car back to the hotel when you're ready. Just send the car back for me to pick me up when I'm done, okay?" He lays his plan out for her understanding.

Gina pauses for a moment. She does her best to try to hide her dismay and anger at her plans going against her. It's rather ironic, after all. With all that she's been doing to promote and connive to put a bad reputation on Rick, and to have it backfire on her for this evening, doesn't even feel funny at all, it just makes her angry. But Rick can see a glimpse of her reaction, if only for a brief moment. He doesn't acknowledge that he sees it. Instead, he just heads inside to meet and greet his fans, and sign their books.

Of all the book signings he's ever done, this has been the biggest. He stayed until 10 PM, when the book store closed. A number of fans had called their friends to come after work. It is a Friday, after all, and when he finally leaves, it turned out the over 1,100 people had come thru the line. Nearly all of the fans were very happy with his appearance. About a dozen women REALLY wanted him to sign their chests, but he graciously turned them down, and instead offered to make a more detailed inscription in their books. As he was leaving, the book store owner thanked him profusely. They had the best sales day that they had ever had. They had heard about his reputation, and had stocked up on a quadruple order of his books, and it paid off. They were almost totally sold out. As Rick was about to get into his town car, the owner said to him:

"Mr Castle? You're suck a nice guy, not like some other authors. I know that your rep isn't the greatest, but you deserve all the fans you can get. You've made them AND me, very happy today. Bye!" And the owner gets into the car and drives off. Rick doesn't give it any thought. He just rides back to the hotel and horders a cold-cut sandwich before bed, along with a glass of red wine. He sleeps the sleep of the just.

The third day in LA begins and he only has one book signing to do today. It won't be as big as last nights was, but it'll be close.

Afterwards, he finds out that it didn't beat yesterdays record. Only 920, but the fans were clamoring for more hints on his next book DEAD HEAT. So many people told him that they'd buy it today if it was available. But they didn't have to wait much longer.

This time when Rick is in his hotel room, he calls Kate to say hi, and see how the girls are. Plus he wanted to apologize again for not calling the night before because of the late hour.

"Golly, Rick, you seem to have a whole lot of fans that just can't seem to get enough of you." Kate said with a hint of sarcasm.

"I know. I am trying to be as nice of a guy as I can be for them, but still some of them want to be overly aggressive. I'd prefer to simply sign the books, read the excerpts, and answer questions, but there are always a few that always seem to want more. It's almost never a problem, and for the few times when it is, that's why we have security there. Things have gone pretty smoothly, so far. The number of fans her in LA is *huge*! Today I signed over 900 books, and yesterday over 1,100. It was mind-boggling. But I'm sure it'll taper off once we leave California." With all that's been going on the last few days, he gets a bit to verbose, explaining everything to Kate.

"Hmm. Yeah, I guess you have been busy. What about that girl at the PlayHouse that you were kissing about two nights ago? Was she the appropriate amount of aggressive for you?" Kate says, and Rick can hear the anger simmering in her voice.

Rick had tried to forget the drunk fan, so he tried to explain. "No, babe… I had been going for one business person to another, and near the end of the night, this woman who was totally drunk just ran up and grabbed me! I pushed her away, and then I left, right afterwards. She had obviously drank too much, and decided on a poor course of action. I did NOT kiss her. I pushed her away as fast as I could. I'm sorry it happened, but the club was so crowded last night, that it's impossible to have security around me everywhere, stopping people from getting close to me. I know that people can make dumb choices, but I am doing all I can to prevent that from happening."

Kate doesn't say anything at first. Rick can see she's looking down at her hands.

"Kate? I'm sorry that happened. I am doing all that I can to try to show you that I'm not inviting that kind of action to occur. If it was you, I'd love it. I'd hug you tight, and kiss you all night long. Not someone else, just you, Kate. Just you." Rick pauses then, to see what kind of reaction Kate will have. Finally, after another minute, Kate exhales deeply, and looks up.

"Rick, I'm sorry about this. The media is always flying around you, exacerbating everything that celebrities do. But you need to understand how it looks to me, from outside the box. These various women, trying to grab you, or kiss you, or… who knows WHAT they want to do to you… or WITH you. It's just hard, sometimes. And on top of that, the fact that people know that you're my husband means that a few of the more moronic ones make stupid comments, and tease me about you."

Kate pauses. Is she catching her breath? Or preparing to say something of great concern to them..

"It all comes down to how real, or how believable it seems. Admittedly, that's one of the things I *love* about your books. You do such a good job in making me believe. But the difficulty is that, unfortunately, the media are pretty good at making this seem real. I guess that what worries me is…" She pauses. "What worries me is … What will happen if something seems SO REAL that it seems impossible to prove otherwise. What do I do then?" She asks him, almost pleading for an answer.

Rick takes his own deep breath. "Kate, that's a question that I don't have a simple answer for. I guess it all comes down to your heart. For the last 10 years, I've tried to show you how much I love and care for you. How much I love and care for the girls. Are you saying that you don't want me to ever go out in public again? That's a tough answer to give. I will talk to your dad, and his associates when I get back, to see if I can change my contract so that these book signings either don't happen, or else … maybe you could … Maybe you could arrange to come with me on a reduced number of them. Would that help?" He looks directly into the laptop camera, trying to see directly through to her, 25 hundred miles away in New York.

Kate can see and sense his directness, and what he's offering. She looks back into her own camera, in effect, looking him in the eyes. "I think that might be a good idea. Could we talk about that when you get back?"

"Absolutely, Kate. I'll admit that I love writing. It's also nice meeting polite and properly friendly fans, too. But I don't want to do ANYTHING that would cause you any heartache. In fact… In fact, I'll even…" Rick seems to be having a touch time getting something out. "Kate?" He sounds more forceful and confident now. "Kate. If you want, I'll even give up writing. I've earned a hell of a lot of money, and we could easily live off that. Residuals are not permanent, but we can invest our money if we have to, to ensure that we have a steady income to go along with your own. Would you like me to do that? I will, if it's that important to you." Rick says, solemnly.

Kate gets a shock look on her face. "No, Rick, No! I'd never ask you to stop writing your stories. They're one of the best things I love about you. There's always justice, and adventure, and fun. But mostly, the characters in your books care about the people they are helping. I'd never ask you to give that up. Never!"

"Kate? You are what I love most in my life. I love the girls so dearly. I could never NOT love them. But you are the one I've grown to love. You are the one for me. You, above all."

Kate gives him a huge, warm smile. "And you are the one that I most love, Rick. Her eyes are glistening now, and she blinks a few times, in an attempt to hold back any tears. The fact that Rick can see that from her, makes his own eyes water a bit, as well.

"Kate, I'm really glad that we had this chance to talk like this. Heart to heart. You are my heart, and you will be my heart. Always." He puts his hand on the screen, as if touching her face. "I wish I could careess you now. I miss you so much. We're getting close to the halfway mark. I'll be so glad when I'm on my way heading back to you." Rick decides that he'll try to lighten the mood a bit, make things happy, for a bit. "There are a few places I've been to on this trip that I'd never been to before. I'm hoping that maybe later on, perhaps Christmas vacation, we could bring the girls out here with us. Spend it all together, like a family, you know?" Rick says, smiling shyly.

Kate smiles back to him, in the same way. "I think that it would be a terrific idea for winter vacation. I'm sure that girls would just love it. We'll have to talk some about it when you get back and figure out an itinerary, okay?"

"Okay!" Rick says, with certainty. "Listen, I know I called a little bit earlier to be able to talk to you, but I'm sure you'll need to get your sleep. I'll talk to you next time, alright?"

"Alright." Kate responds.

"I love you, Kate." He offers as a final close.

"Love you too, babe." She says back to him, with a smile.

#

The next two stops are San Jose , and San Diego. San Jose was actually back up the west coast, but Gina explained it was a scheduling issue. Just one stop only out of order. Overall, both of the stops were picture perfect. No rude fans, and lots of people with books to sign. His kind of stop. And because things went so smoothly, he had a chance for sightseeing for a day in each place. San Jose allowed him to go to a rather predictable stop. The Winchester Mystery House. Rick spent almost the whole day there. The place was amazing and weird. About 160 rooms in the house, and yet no working bathrooms amongst them. The only working one was outside the original owners bedroom window. There were stairs that led to nowhere, and doors that opened onto nothing, and there were windows that purposely cast rainbows within the hosue, and the patterns of 13 item types occurred everywhere. 13 candles in candelabras, 13 clothes hooks, 13 this and 13 that. Rick decided that it was his favorite stop so far, and he guessed it would be the best stop for the entire trip. Little did he know that he was right, and not much more would be so much fun.

In San Diego, the sightseeing day was first, and Rick went to the San Diego Zoo, and bought numerous small toys for the girls, plus a stuffed elephant and a stuffed monkey, each of which would be as big as the girls themselves. He had them shipped home to New York.

At last, they left California, and headed for Las Vegas. Rick was looking forward to it. He'd been there before on a few previous book tours. This would be a 3-day affar, too.

Amazingly, Gina has arranged things for Rick to do some meet and greets all by himself. The first day, he does a book signing with her, the second day, Rick watches the Bellagio fountains for about half an hour and then relaxes for a while by playing poker in one of the casionos, followed by some meet and greets by himself, and the last day is another book signing followed by reading two passages from the new book. Although Rick was curious about what Gina was doing the second evening, he was actually happy to not have her around, harping at him right and left. He didn't feel she was a terrible person, but she sure grated on him after a while.

On that third day, Gina was all smiles, and nothing seems to make her mad. Rick wasn't sure what happened, but it worked for him. He even wondered if she'd had a nice date the night before, that worked out well for her. But it didn't really matter. She wasn't giving him a hard time and he liked it.

When they finally wrapped things up for the Texas stops, Gina stepped aside to make a phone call while they were waiting in the airport.

She stepped back from Rick, and sat down, facing him about 40 feet away. "So all the final editing was a success? … Good. You said you'd release it as a buy-your-own copy, at first, and then you'll be releasing it for free to the news outlets in about 4 or 5 days, right? … Okay, remember, any money you make off the full, uncensored version, you put half the profit into the acct I told you about, and the rest you can keep. … Got it. Thanks. Call if there are any questions or problems. … Good bye."


	9. Chapter 9

**Let me know what you think? Thank you Frank.**

They flew on to Denver, then El Paso, and finally San Antonio. Maybe it was just because of the weather, but there was not an increase in fan turnout. It was still above average, but the numbers seemed to have reached a plateau. Each stop went by fine. Things were light enough that Rick had decided to take time to relax and see what his fan club was doing. He had woken up the morning he was going to leave San Antonio, when he got a call that was routed to his hotel room phone. He quickly wipes the sleep out of his eyes, and answers it."Hi, this is Rick Castle. How can I help you?"

A rather polite voice on the phone responded. "Mr. Castle. This is KHOU, and we have you scheduled for an interview, here in Houston, early this evening? I'm sorry, but we'll need to cancel for the time being. We've had a bit more important news story come up that we need to cover today. I hope you'll understand." The man's voice says.  
"Uh, I'm sorry to hear that. I hope it's not too much of a prob-" Rick was cut ott.  
"Thank you, Good day, sir." And the caller hung up.

'That was weird. I've never had a cancellation like that before.' He thought to himself. He then gets up and gets ready for leaving in about an three hours. Finally, he's decided to take a shower. Once he'd done with that, he was getting his belongings together, he gets another call on this hotel phone, so he answers it.  
"Hello, Rick Castle."  
A woman with a slight Texas twang in her voice comes on the line. "Mr Castle? Thisi s Ms Rollings, of the Texas Bookland Book just wanted to save you the time and trouble of showing up today. We've received word tthat there are little to no fans planning on showing up for the signing, so we wanted to let you know that you don't need to stop by or waste your time."

"Why? What happened? Why won't there be any people there?" He asked, puzzled.  
"Um, we've had a large number of readers come in to say that they'd be boycotting the event and that they'd be telling all their friends that, too. I'm sorry; Mr. Castle, but we've had the same complaint at the other two book store in the chain that you were going to be at tomorrow and Tuesday, as well. Thanks for your time. Buh-bye." And she hung up the phone.  
"Wbat the heck is going on here? Is there someone more famous in town? Is this the National Hate Richard Castle Day? Is this the start of a zombie apocalypse? Why is this happening?" He said to himself. So since he had a bit of time left and he was getting hungry. He called Room Service and ordered breakfast for himself.

About 15 minutes later, there's a knock on his door. He goes to answer it, and see's a young woman with a cart with his food on it. He steps out of the way to let her come in. She quickly gets things set up for him. Rick can obviously see the tension in her face, and in her body language. Even what she says is very restrictive. Short one or two word phrases, nothing more. As he gets her tip ready, he asks her.  
"Miss? Is everything okay? You seem a bit worried about something. Is there anything I can do to help you?"  
The young woman looks at him, almost in disbelief. "I don't think I'll need your tip, or your help, SIR!" She barks out the last word, and starts heading for the door.  
Quickly, he asks. "Miss? Is there something wrong? What's the matter?" Rick asks, with concern in his voice.  
The woman opens the door, turns to him, and says. "Turn on the TV, you JERK!" and she slams the door on the way out.

Now Rick is completely befuddled. What could make her so angry at him? He didn't think he'd done anything to her, or to anyone. Why was she so upset? He then decided to turn the TV on and see if there was anything that could explain her reaction.  
He turned on the TV and searched through the different channels. He eventually hits on CNN Headline News, and waits to see what news stories are going on. He doesn't have to wait long. A woman news report comes on screen with a news story.

"We have a breaking news story for you all today. It appears that Paris Hilton is not alone with her intimate videos, for sale to the public. We now hear that the popular , ruggedly handsome mystery author, Rick Castle, who seems to be trying to get himself up in lights, as well. Currently, there is a fully uncensored video available, that lasts for almost an hour. Those videos are available for $79.99, available on all major credit cards. But there have been shortened, censored versions that were made available to various news agencies. It would appear that his partner in the video is none other than Gina Cowell, his publisher at Black Pawn {ublishing, who have published all 11 of his books, to date. As of yet, there have been no comments released from Richard Castle or Black Pawn Publishing. The video seems to have been relesed about four of five days ago, but it is now receiving national attention. You can be sure that CNN will be following up on this, to provide you with the news, first, with any breaking news."

Rick then watched the 10 second clip that looked as if he and Gina were involved. He was stunned. He started to lose his balance, so he quickly stumbled over to the bed that was near him and nearly fell onto it.  
Finally, after a few minutes, Rick picked his jaw up off the floor. 'What the heck was that? Who would do such a thing? Why would they do such a thing? Who was in that movie? I need to call Gina.'

He picked up his cell phone and called Gina directly. She picked up after only two rings. "Hello, Rick. What's up? You ready for Houston?"  
"Gina?" He paused. "Have you… Did you see the news lately? Maybe some news about … me?"  
"What news do you mean, Rick?" She answered back, uncertain.  
"Uh… I think you should turn on CNN and wait for the news story about me…. And you…" Rick stopped talking.  
"CNN? Why? What are you talking about, Rick?" She asked.  
"Listen to me. Just watch CNN until it comes on again. Hopefully within the hour. Call me back after you watch it, okay?"  
"Okay, Rick. I'll call you back." And she hung up him

Gina had a grin on her face as a another phone call came in. "Hello." Gina said with a seductive voice. "Did it work?" A mans seductive voice on the another end of the phone.

"Yes, his for sure lost her after this and then he will be mine." Gina added with a wicked smile.

"Yours, but I thought there was a us." The man asked confused. "No you idiot, I only told you that so you would get the job done."

"But what about the." "It was fake." Gina said punching the bridge of her nose. "You know I don't have time for this." Gina said hanging up the phone.

After about 30 minutes, Gina called him back.  
"Uh, well, it seems to be bad… and good. I realize that you didn't do that. I think I'd know if you and I…"

"Geez, Gina. You're not my type. And I'm married. That would never be me!"  
"Uh, yes. Well, on the good side of things, it'll get you one hell of a lot of media coverage. That's good, right?"  
"No! It's not. I've already gotten two calls this morning. One from KHOU who cancelled the on-air interview they were going to do, and also from the Bookland Book Stores. They apparently are having customers *boycotting* the events for all three days! I'm worried that things I've scheduled in other cities might cancel, as well." He said, morosely.  
"What? They canceleld? They can't do that. It's in the contract! We'll sue 'em!" She said, getting all upset about it.

"Gina, if this thing with the sex-tape is going on, I don't know that it would be a good idea trying to leverage a contract to make them have the event. You don't have the customers under contract, do you?"  
"Ugh! Yeah, I guess so. I never thought…" She replied, trailing off.  
"How about Black Pawn? This is going to hurt them, as well as me. Maybe not as much as me, but still. Book Sales."

I guess I'll call them, see what our options are. Maybe we can pull this out for ourselves. If we can give it the right spin, we might be able to make this a big draw for you. You know: Famous ruggedly handsome author is so desirable. Would you desire him, as well? What do you think? Pretty good, huh, Rick?"

"Um, Gina, you do realize that it's you in that video with the person who looks like me? Are you willing to lower yourself for that?" Gina didn't respond.  
"Listen, Gina. I need to call home and get on top of this. It looks like Houston might be completely cancelled. I'll get back to you and let you know, okay?"  
"Yeah, sure. Talk to you later."

Now Rick had to pause, and collect his thoughts. He had to call Kate first. How can he explain this to her without her blowing up at him. He knew he hadn't done the movie, but it sure looked like him, in the short bit he saw. Well, maybe not so good, but at least it was getting near lunch in New York. Hopefully he can catch Kate while she's eating. He called her cell phone, and after about five rings, she picked up. He didn't even get a chance to say anything. All he heard was:  
"You son of a bitch! You cheating bastard! I don't want to talk to you!" And then she hung up.  
'Well, I guess she knows about the news." He thought. He then dialed another number that he had on speed-dial.

"Weber, Felder, and Goldstein. How can I help you?" A young man's voice answered.  
"C-Could I speak with Mr Ron Weber? Th-This is Richard Castle calling." He stammered out.  
"Is he expecting your call, sir?" The voice said.  
"N-No. but he is my attorney of record, and I need to talk to him. Righ away. Please." Rick got out.  
"Just a moment, sir. I'll see if he's available." And then hold music came on the line.  
It took a good two minutes of waiting, before a voice came on the phone.  
"Rick! It's good to hear from you. Is this a legal call? Or a friendly call?" Ron asked him.  
"Ron, I think I'm in some big trouble. I don't know whose doing it, but we need to get it resolved. Can you help me?"

"Tell you what, Rick. Why don't you explain it to me, and I'll see what we can do, okay?"  
"I appreciate it, Ron. Let me tell you about my difficulties."  
At this point, Rick started relating what he'd found out that morning about the sex-tape. "Holy crap, Rick!" He also explained that someone who looked like Gina was in the video as well.  
"So you're telling me that you didn't actually make this movie, right?" Ron asked.  
"Yeah. I would never do that to Kate."

"Well, you do know she has a gun, right?" Ron said, going for a bit of morbid humor.  
"I know, Ron. I know. Since I didn't do it, what are my options here to get it taken down. And if possible, can we get them to admit that it's not really me in the movie?"

"Well, we'll need to get an injunction against them releasing any more copies. That will be the first step. Then, I think we need to threaten them with slander, libel, defamation of character, and unauthorized use of your image. That's off the top of my head. I'll have to check for anything applicable. If we do that, we'll probably be able to get them into court, and also, possibly, into a room where we can do some bargaining and threatening. Unfortunately, today is Sunday, so the courts are mostly not available today. Still, we'll get the paperwork ready, so that as soon as we can go after those guys, we'll be ready. I think that today, we'll probably tryto find out the company in charge of it so that we can take direct action, and not thru holding companies, or the like."

"Oh, geez. Thanks, Ron. I don't know what I'd do without you guys. When do you want me to check in with you?"  
"Give us a call tomorrow, around noon, our time, okay? In the meantime find out what you can about how wide-spread any of your cancellations are. If this is malicious, we might be able to sue them for loss of wages, too. Let me know if you find any more information, okay?"  
"You got it, Ron. Talk to you later. Bye." And Rick hung up. He waited for another half hour, before he called Gina back.  
"Hello, Rick." Gina started with.  
"What did you find out from Black Pawn? Are they going to be looking into this as well?"  
"There isn't a lot that they can do, Rick. The images are of you and me. There might be more person aspects to deal with, but not much professionally."  
"Nothing? Really? He responded.

"I'm afraid not. Think abou thtat Paris Hilton tape that came out last month. That just helped her. It gave her so much publicity, that the small bad publicity ended up not hurting her. They feel the same way. This can only help them. Actually, I think you should play this up for the media. You and I… Seen out dancing, having a good time, maybe we can get some other women to also go out with you. This could boost your media score so that everyone would know you. You'd probably become the top Page 6 boy, back in New York. Wouldn't that be great?"

"Gina, let me put it this way. I am a married man. I am true to my wife. As things currently stand, this tape is going to be causing me a lot of heartache and problems. If Black Pawn doesn't get on my team, I may have to drop you guys for my next book. Now, does that get them motivated to help me?" Rick said, with a cold voice.  
"All right. I'll tell them what you said."

"Okay. And one more thing. Since Houston is pretty much a rip, I'm going to head home for the next 3 days. If Austin still wants me to come out, I'll be there. But I need to head home for a few days. Give me a call when you find out about Austin, and also let me know if any others are cancelling, too. I'll talk to you later. I'm heading out to the airport in the next hour. I've got a wife I need to go home to, right away."  
Gina hung up, and Rick called the airlines and booked a different flight to go to New York City, instead of Austin, Texas.  
As Rick was waiting for his flight, he called to Kate three more times. Each time, it went right to voice mail. Nothing.


	10. Chapter 10

The flight home from San Antonio to New York was quiet, as far as Rick was concerned. However, a few men made comments about how cool he was, and the like. However, there was one woman who gave him a look that could kill. She gave him such a venomous stare, that he was thankful that he was up in First Class, and not near her. One thing that helped is that he had purposely rebooked his flight on a smaller airline, so that he would have to sit near Gina and feel awkward. Fortunately, the stewardesses didn't say anything or hint at any knowledge of what he was accused of.

But she offered everyone a drink expect for him Rick left his seat and walked up to the stewardesses. "What do you want?" Her friendly smile turning into an eye roll and frown. "Can I get a drink, please?" Rick asked.

"What kind of drink?"

"Just a water please." Rick shrugged as the stewardesses as she scooped some ice into his cup and then filling it up with water.

"Would your mistress like anything?" The stewardesses asked hands on her hip. "She's not my mistress alright, she's just my publisher."

"I'm a happily married man who loves's his wife very much and I wish everyone would just hear out my side." Rick turned around and announced to the whole plane, but all he got was. "Shut up Jerk."

"Who let him on the plane." "Sit down idiot."

When he got to New York, it was about three in the afternoon. He decided to head straight for the loft since Kate had the day off. As he was riding the elevator up to his floor, he began to get very apprehensive, and when he got to his door, he paused for a few moments, in an attempt to gather his thoughts, and to best try to figure out a course of action. When he felt as ready as he could be, he unlocked the door and went in.

When he got inside, he looked around. There was no one in sight. But then he looked again and saw Kate standing over by the stone. Both her arms were straight down, and she was leaning on them on the stove countertop. He couldn't be sure, but he could have swore that he saw her trembling for a second. But then the door closed behind him. The sound called her attention to him. She slowly looked up.

When she saw who it was, her face took on a look of such hate, despair, and regret. Just as he bent to set his suitcase down, she immediately turned, grabbed a coffee mug from a shelf behind her, and threw it at him.

"YOU GODDAMN BASTARD!" She yelled as she whipped it at him.

He had only the briefest second of warning before it thudded hard into his chest and fell to the ground shattering. The pain and the impact forced him to step back, a few paces. He looked down and saw it was the coffee mug that Kate had bought him shortly after they'd gotten married. It said WORLD'S GREATEST HUSBAND. He looked up at Kate. As much importance as the cup was to him, he knew why she'd used that one, and not a random one.

Rick decided to walk over to her. He stopped on the opposite side of the stove counter.

"Kate! I didn't make that movie! That's not me! I don't know who did it or why, but I didn't do that! I would NEVER betray your trust in our vows! Never!"

She had watched him walk over to where is was now. She looked him in the eye and said. "Yeah, I'm sure it was your evil twin brother, right?" She spat out, still looking at him as if she could just wish him to death.

"Please, Kate. I know I don't have proof right now. But I have talked to Ron Weber, my lawyer. You know him, right? He's looking into it right now, and as soon as we find out who is making these tapes, we'll get an injunction to stop them. We're going to figure out who did this, and get the evidence we need to prove it for you… and me." Rick said the last two words more quietly than the previous ones.

Kate paused for a moment. It looked like maybe she was calming down. But she looked him square in the eye and said. "I think you need to move out for the time being. Maybe we should even have a trial separation until this is resolved. If everything works out as you say, then we'll be alright again. But if not." Kate paused for a moment, and then looked back down to the countertop. "My lawyer will contact you with divorce papers." "Could I- Would I be able to see the girls, … sometimes?" Rick said with pleading in his voice.

"Yeah. But not today. Stop by tomorrow, while I'm at work. I don't expect to be home before 6 PM. Joe takes the girls to the park in the morning. You can stop by after that." After another pause, Kate continued. "But for now, I'd like you to leave."

Rick nodded his head. "Alright. I'll stay at the Cosmopolitan. It's only about a mile away. I'll text you the room number when I get there." Rick walked a few feet towards the door, and then he turned back to face her.

"Kate? I'm so sorry that this is happening to us, to you, to me. I swear that I will resolve this for you. I'm sorry."

With that, he turned to face the door and headed over to his suitcase and laptop bag. Before he picked them up, he bent down to examine the coffee mug she'd thrown at him. It was only a cheap ceramic mug. But she'd had loved in her heart, and a sparkle in her eye when she'd given it to him with a kiss full of passion. He could only pray that he'd be able to restore them back to her. Soon.

For now, he picked up his belongings, and headed out the door, with a heavy heart. He rubbed his chest, where she'd hit him with the mug.

#

Having lived in New York all his life, he caught a cab and had them head for the hotel. He checked in there and sent a message to Kate informing him of where he'd be staying. Once that was done, he called Black Pawn to find out if there was any news for the rest of the book tour.

The main receptionist, Rhonda, answered the phone. "Black Pawn Publishing. How may I direct your call?"

"Hi, Rhonda. This is Richard Castle. I was wondering if Gina Cowell had come in, or if you'd heard from her today?"

"I'm sorry, Mistah Castle. I ain't heard from her or seen her today. Ain't you guys supposed to be in Who-ston by now?" Rick smiled to himself at the way she said, Houston.

"Um, no. They had problems and had to cancel my appearances there. What about Mr. Grimm? Is he there?"

"Nah. He never comes in on the weekend. Do you wan' me to leave him a message for ya?"

"Well, yeah. That might be a good idea. Please tell him that since Houston canceled my appearances, I need to know if any other locations have done the same. And Rhonda? If Gina contacts you, have her call me as soon as she can, alright?"

"You got it, Mistah Castle. I'll pass the message along, like you wan'. By the way, that was one hell of a movie you made with Miss Cowell, huh?" She said with a snort.

"Uh, that wasn't me in that movie, Rhonda. I don't think it was Miss Cowell, either. I'll call tomorrow to try to catch them later. Thanks!" And he ended the call.

'Oh boy. I guess I shouldn't be surprised they know about it here, too.' He thought to himself. He thought about what he could do for the rest of the day. He decided to go out to a newsstand down in the lobby and get any papers or magazines that are talking about him. He figured that the Ledger would probably have the most coverage since they had their beloved Page 6 section to deal with celebrities and gossip.

As Rick was reading thru the papers, there were stories about President Bush downplaying the chance of a Palestinian state in the next year, After that, Martha Stewart was sentenced for her crimes for attempting to cover up illegal stock trading, and it looked like Enron was going to come out of bankruptcy with a new company name.

He didn't find the story about his own problem until deeper into the paper. 'Thank goodness for some sense of decorum' Rick thought to himself. But, just like he thought, there WAS a bit of news on Page 6, near the bottom.

########################################

What's Richard Castle up to these days? If you hadn't heard, he seems to have an explicit sex-tape out now, for the discerning viewer. I guess he either thinks he's not famous enough, or else he just likes sleeping around with a VIDEO CAMERA watching him. Sources say that his publishing company, Black Pawn, has yet to make any comment on the hour-long film. You can purchase it online for under $80 bucks if you want to watch it yourself. We here at the Ledger had a chance to watch it, and we have only one thing to say. That man has STAMINA! So if celebrity sex videos are your thing, pick up a copy today. You won't be disappointed.

Rick has a bittersweet laugh at his own expense when he read that. 'I sure hope Kate doesn't read that. What am I saying! If anyone at the precinct sees it, they'll probably tell her.' He thought to himself, with a sigh.

He looked through all the rest of the papers, and fortunately, none of them had any bigger of a story than that. Although one of the gossip rags had a two-inch by a three-inch image from the movie itself. Thank heavens it just showed him sitting on the bed, apparently talking to Gina's look-alike. It must have been before the action started because he still had clothes on. One thing about it made him a little happy. The suit the fake-Rick was wearing was a way too loud of a color than he'd ever wear. A bold purple pattern. It looked like it was straight out of a porn movie.

By this time, he figured that he should probably eat. True, he wasn't very hungry, but still. He had room service deliver a lite meal for himself. Just a cold ham and cheese sandwich, with a beer. When he was done, he couldn't quite bring himself to watch any television, for fear of seeing something more about himself or Gina. He considered the idea of trying to work on his next novel but didn't really feel any inspiration. Without Kate, he felt dead inside. At last, he decided to go down to the hotel workout room and get some exercise.

Maybe if he did something strenuous enough, he'd be tired enough to sleep through the night. He hoped. Most of his time there, he ran on a treadmill. He managed a five-mile run. Normally, he did about three miles, but he kind of zoned out, trying to think of what he could do for Kate, and before he knew it, he'd gotten past five miles. Then he hit the weights for a bit, and that really had him sweating and feeling exhausted. He made his way up to his room, showered and went to sleep. For all his efforts to avoid it, he still had a very restless and sleepless night.

#

The next day, Rick checked in with Black Pawn during the mid-morning. Gina had returned last night, and he had a chance to talk with her about the tour.

"So, Gina. What's the news? Do I do Austin? Or Dallas? Or the rest? What did you find out?"

"It's not good news for the present. Including Houston, all of the next four stops have canceled on us. I'm struggling to try to convince Jacksonville to go forward, and I'm hopeful. But at least DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York are still onboard. That means that, counting today, you have from now until the 28th to do what you want. That's nine days."

"Well, as you'd expect, that's good and bad. Bad, because it's fewer fans to see, but good, because maybe we can get this fixed by then. I hope." Rick looked over his notes for what he had thought to do.

"Have you spoken with Mr. Grimm? Is Black Pawn going to be backing me in this situation?"

"Yes. I've talked to my uncle, and he agrees that this could work out badly for us. So he's on the team. That should make you happy." She said, a bit disgruntled.

"Why do you sound like that, Gina? Isn't this better for us to resolve this, and be exonerated? Don't you want that?" he asked, incredulously.

"Y-Yeah, it is good. It's just that joining forces will paint some of the problems on Black Pawn, as well."

"Gina, if you don't want to, that's okay. But it means I'll be looking for a new publisher with my next book. We are either a team or we're not. It's up to you and your uncle, Mr. Grimm."

"No. That's fine. It's just that, when I first saw the story, I had this brief idea of you being the big 'Bad Boy' Mystery Writer, and how much appeal that would have for your fans, especially the women fans. There's definitely an appeal for that sort of thing, and as many problems as your having, the 'Bad Boy' feel can only help you. That's all."

"I agree, that would be appealing. But not at this cost. Not at the risk of my marriage." He replied.

"Well, think of this. If you did get divorced, you could still see the girls, maybe date Kate. But also be available for all the other women out there that would LOVE to date you. You'd bring int at least twice the amount of revenue, that way." Gina told him, warming to the subject.

"Gina. I'm not writing books to be able to date other women. I have a family. My girls, my wife. Kate is all I need. I know you've mentioned that over the years, but it has no appeal to me, to be away from them. Can't we just drop it?"

"Okay, okay. I will. Give me a call in a few days, and we'll see if we can get any other stores that might want you to show up, in the meantime."

"Sure. I have a number of things to do here, but I might have some time for a couple. I'll call you later."

#

When that day had started, Kate had gone into the Precinct. She stops at her desk at Homicide, on the fourth floor to check her mail and email. Then she heads up to the seventh floor, Organized Crime. It had been almost a month since her case with the three bodies down near the docks had occurred. But because of all the mob times, she had been tasked by Montgomery to be the liaison between Homicide and Organized Crime Control Bureau, or OCCB for short. She headed right over to Detective Daniels desk. At the moment, he wasn't there. She turned to ask one of his coworkers, and they said he was down at 1PP, giving a report to the commissioner. The coworker said he'd probably be back in an hour. She thanked him and left.

Since she was only doing paperwork down in Homicide today, She decided to head over to the morgue and see her old friend. When she walked in, she saw Lanie sitting at her desk, typing up a report. She looked up and saw Kate and smiled.

"Hey, girl! How're you doing this fine Monday morning?" Lanie exclaimed, and walked over to give her a hug.

"Hi, Lanie. I thought I'd stop by here, say hi, and maybe get some guidance."

"Sure! What's going on?"

"Well, I was at work, last Friday, and one of the other Detectives asked me 'Do you like being married to a movie star?'. I was a bit confused until he told me about this movie that's been released. According to him, the movie has Rick and Gina Cowell in it. And they're having sex! Fortunately, he'd brought in his own laptop from home into work, and he was able to show me a bit of it. It was awful! They were in bed together, and Rick was on top of her, and… and… it showed pretty much everything! I don't even know how I get home that night. After all the stuff that's been going on this last month, and he does this? I wanted to shoot him!"

"Honey, calm down. Are you sure it was him in the movie? That sounds totally out of character for Rick."

"Okay, so I didn't sit and watch the whole thing. Supposedly, it's over an hour long. I only watched about five minutes in the middle of it. From what I could see, it sure looked like him!"

"Have you talked to him about it yet?"

He called on the phone early yesterday morning. I just called him a lot of names and hung up on him. But he got home yesterday afternoon, and we talked a bit. I might have thrown a coffee mug at him. I hit him, too! Maybe I should have thrown a carving knife at him!" Kate said with an evil smile.

"Woah! Girl, you need to calm down a minute. What did he say to you?"

Rick has a bittersweet laugh at his own expense when he read that. 'I sure hope Kate doesn't read that. What am I saying! If anyone at the precinct sees it, they'll probably tell her.' He thought to himself, with a sigh.

He looked through all the rest of the papers, and fortunately, none of them had any bigger of a story than that. Although one of the gossip rags had a two-inch by a three-inch image from the movie itself. Thank heavens it just showed him sitting on the bed, apparently talking to Gina's look-alike. It must have been before the action started because he still had clothes on. One thing about it made him a little happy. The suit the fake-Rick was wearing was a way too loud of a color than he'd ever wear. A bold purple pattern. It looked like it was straight out of a porn movie.

By this time, he figured that he should probably eat. True, he wasn't very hungry, but still. He had room service deliver a lite meal for himself. Just a cold ham and cheese sandwich, with a beer. When he was done, he couldn't quite bring himself to watch any television, for fear of seeing something more about himself or Gina. He considered the idea of trying to work on his next novel but didn't really feel any inspiration.

Without Kate, he felt dead inside. At last, he decided to go down to the hotel workout room and get some exercise. Maybe if he did something strenuous enough, he'd be tired enough to sleep through the night. He hoped. Most of his time there, he ran on a treadmill. He managed a five-mile run. Normally, he did about three miles, but he kind of zoned out, trying to think of what he could do for Kate, and before he knew it, he'd gotten past five miles. Then he hit the weights for a bit, and that really had him sweating and feeling exhausted. He made his way up to his room, showered and went to sleep. For all his efforts to avoid it, he still had a very restless and sleepless night.

#

When that day had started, Kate had gone into the Precinct. She stops at her desk at Homicide, on the fourth floor to check her mail and email. Then she heads up to the seventh floor, Organized Crime. It had been almost a month since her case with the three bodies down near the docks had occurred. But because of all the mob times, she had been tasked by Montgomery to be the liaison between Homicide and

Organized Crime Control Bureau, or OCCB for short. She headed right over to Detective Daniels desk. At the moment, he wasn't there. She turned to ask one of his coworkers, and they said he was down at 1PP, giving a report to the commissioner. The coworker said he'd probably be back in an hour. She thanked him and left.

Since she was only doing paperwork down in Homicide today, She decided to head over to the morgue and see her old friend. When she walked in, she saw Lanie sitting at her desk, typing up a report. She looked up and saw Kate and smiled.

"Hey, girl! How're you doing this fine Monday morning?" Lanie exclaimed, and walked over to give her a hug.

"Hi, Lanie. I thought I'd stop by here, say hi, and maybe get some guidance."

"Sure! What's going on?"

"Well, I was at work, last Friday, and one of the other Detectives asked me 'Do you like being married to a movie star?'. I was a bit confused until he told me about this movie that's been released. According to him, the movie has Rick and Gina Cowell in it. And they're having sex! Fortunately, he'd brought in his own laptop from home into work, and he was able to show me a bit of it. It was awful! They were in bed together, and Rick was on top of her, and… and… it showed pretty much everything! I don't even know how I get home that night. After all the stuff that's been going on this last month, and he does this? I wanted to shoot him!"

"Honey, calm down. Are you sure it was him in the movie? That sounds totally out of character for Rick."

"Okay, so I didn't sit and watch the whole thing. Supposedly, it's over an hour long. I only watched about five minutes in the middle of it. From what I could see, it sure looked like him!"

"Have you talked to him about it yet?"

He called on the phone early yesterday morning. I just called him a lot of names and hung up on him. But he got home yesterday afternoon, and we talked a bit. I might have thrown a coffee mug at him. I hit him, too! Maybe I should have thrown a carving knife at him!" Kate said with an evil smile.

"Woah! Girl, you need to calm down a minute. What did he say to you?"

"He told me it wasn't him, that he's having our lawyer look into it, to stop them from selling it and to find out why they made it, and who was in it. But seriously! Where are you going to find a twin to Rick? He did it, I'm sure of it!"

"Alright, I know I'm normally the more emotional one here, but I have to ask you. What will you do if he can't prove it wasn't him?"

"I'm going to divorce him, and file for sole custody of the girls," Kate said, with a very stoic voice.

"Um, okay. And what if he can prove he didn't do it?"

"Uh, well, I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Although… if he DIDN'T do it, I'll find out who did, and I'll kill THEM! I'll shoot them in each eye, and once in the crotch!"

"Well, at least you seem to have a plan there, girl. Just do us all a favor and don't shoot Rick first. I got confidence in him, not to mention quite a few years of knowledge of him. I'm betting on him. At least for now. So go on your way, let me know if you find anything else out about this, and DON'T SHOOT ANYONE, ya hear?" Lanie said to her, with her own patented Lanie glare.

Kate smiled back at her and said. "Okay, no shooting… Yet. But maybe I could use my fingernails to claw out their eyes? You think?"

"Girl, you trim your fingernails short for your job. I think you'd have a hard time with that. For now, lets TRY and give Rick the benefit of the doubt for a little, to see what he finds out. Now, go! You have criminals waiting to be caught." Lanie told her, and pointed out the doors of the morgue.

"Thanks, Lanie. I'm glad I've got you for a friend. Talk to you later, okay? And Kate gave her a hug before she left.

#

When Kate arrived back at the 12th, she again checked her desk for messages, and then headed up to OCCB. This time when the elevator doors opened, Daniels was sitting at his desk, filling out a form.

"Hey, Frank! How's 1PP?" Kate said when she saw him.

"Hey, Beckett. 1PP is always demanding reports the day before crap happens. How's life been treating you?"

"I'll tell you, I've had a hell of a weekend, and not in a good way." Kate lamented.

"Oh boy. Some kind of problem with the NYPD? Or some kind of problem with Rick?"

"It's Rick again. I don't know if you've heard, but apparently a tape has been released that has him and another woman having sex, in it." Kate said quietly, so no one else could hear.

Daniels looked up into her eyes with consternation. "Come with me." And he walked them over to one of the conference rooms. He then pulled the shades and locked the door. Once he was sure they wouldn't be interrupted, he turned to her.

"What do you mean that he was in a sex movie?"

"So he has this publisher. Her name's Gina Cowell, and she this busty blonde. In the movie, they… get it on, I guess you'd say. I haven't wanted to watch the whole movie, but I watched about five minutes of it, and they don't hold anything back."

"My gosh, Beckett. How are you handling this?"

"Well, I hid at home on Saturday. On Sunday, Rick called me. I yelled at him and hung up. He flew home, and we had a bit of a talk. After I threw stuff at him, the jerk!"

"So… What are you going to do now? Are you going to leave him? Are you going to find a way to stay together? If I did that, I'd never expect my wife to stay with me."

"Well, you don't have a wife, so it's not a problem for you now, is it?" She said with a sad smirk.

"What's going to happen, then? Lawyers?"

"Right now, Rick says he has our lawyer looking into who released it, and who was in it. Considering how much the guy looks like Rick, I'm not very hopeful of it NOT being Rick. But I can at least give him a little bit of time. However, for the time being, we are doing a trial separation. He's gone to a hotel to stay. I imagine he'll probably stop by the loft today to see the girls this afternoon. But for now, he's persona non grata around me."

"I'm really sorry about this, Beckett. Have you had anyone else to talk to about it? You can't just hold it inside. It'll kill you."

"I was talking to Lanie before I came back here. I told you about her, right? Anyways, she's on the wait and see side of things. Aside from her, you're the only other person I've talked to about this."

"Do your girls know? Or your brother-in-law… What was him name? John? Jacob? Does he know?"

"His name is Joe. I haven't talked to him for three of four days. I don't know if he's aware of the sex movie. He knows about the fact that I'm having problems. As for the girls, I think they can sense that I'm bothered. I've seen them sometimes crying. At night, they always want their Daddy to tuck them in. I don't know how that's going to work out if we get divorced."

"I have an idea if you don't mind. Obviously, the Precinct is not really the place to talk about this. I don't mean to be too forward about this, but what if we go out for dinner tomorrow night. Nothing romantic. Just a place where we can eat and talk in relative privacy. Would that be okay?"

Kate paused at that. Going out with another man could be a problem. "Um, where did you plan on us going to? If you don't mind me asking?"

"That's not a problem. I don't cook a lot, but I do get by pretty well. I thought that if we ate at my place, we'd have no interruptions, and a nice meal, where you can talk to me, and ask me any questions you might have. Maybe we could figure out the best ground rules for you to work with. Would that be okay with you?"

Again, Kate paused. She thought to herself. 'He may be a handsome guy, but I don't want to do something that I've accused Rick of.'

"How about this instead. There's a nice Restaurant that Rick and I have gone to. They have good food, and they also have separate rooms for people to sit in so they don't get disturbed. Would that be okay?"

"That would be fine. Kate. I do not want to cause you any problems. Why don't you text me the address tomorrow afternoon, and we can meet there. Okay?"

Thanks, Frank. I'll see you then." She shook his hand and left the room with a little spring in her step. She felt like maybe there were some possibilities. Tomorrow she'd find out.

#

Rick arrived at the loft around 1 PM. To play it safe, he knocked first. In about a minute, Joe answered the door.

"Hey, Rick. How's the book tour been?"

"Hi, Joe. Lately? Lately, it's been hell." Rick said, keeping his voice down. "Are there girls here?"

"Yeah, they went down for a brief nap half an hour ago. They'll probably be getting up soon. So… Kate told me about the video. That wasn't you, was it?" Joe asked, looking Rick in the eyes.

"No," Rick said quietly. "I've got Weber, Felder, and Goldstein looking into it. I'm hoping that they'll be able to stop the sale, and also find out who was in that movie. But I did NOT do that. I would never do that to Kate!" He said, raising his voice a bit.

"Hey, that's all right. I didn't think so. You've never struck me as that kind of exhibitionist. I know that there have been times when you and Kate would… well… head for your bedroom at the drop of the hat. But this seems beyond the pale. I haven't seen it myself. Have you?"

"Yeah, I watched a good bit of it last night. I downloaded it from the net. I couldn't bring myself to watch the whole thing, or even most of it. But I hopped around through the video, and it sure looks like me. I might be wrong because you never really know how your own voice sounds, but he doesn't sound quite like me. A bit lower pitch than me. But unfortunately, I'd believe it. If it wasn't about me."

"Rick, are you back now, for good?"

"Sadly, no. I'm going to be staying at the Cosmopolitan in Tribeca for the week. I'll be in Room 603.

At that moment, they heard a door opening upstairs. They then heard little footsteps running down the stairs.

"Daddy! Daddy! Are you home?" At that moment, both girls came around the corner and saw Joe and Rick still standing just inside the doorway.

"Daddy!" And they both jumped onto him. Rick bent down so that he could hug both of the girls, and give them kisses on their cheeks.

"Daddy needs to shave. Scratchy!" Lacey said. But Alexis said, "I like Daddy scratches. I'm glad your back, Daddy!" And she hugged him very tightly.

Joe stuck his own two cents in. "You want a cup of coffee?

"Yes. Thanks, Uncle Joe." Rick then turned to the girls. "Has Uncle Joe been taking good care of you while I was gone? I heard you like to go to the park." He asked them.

"Oh! They have a bumpy slide that we can ride down, and they also have a slide that goes in a circle. I like that one best!"

Rick asked. "Joe? A circle slides?"

"Well, it just spirals down thru a full 360 degrees. All the kids there just love it. These two just keep sliding down it over and over and over!"

"Wow! It sounds Like you girls had a lot of fun, didn't you?" Rick asked the girls.

"Yes, Daddy. We like it a lot. But what I like even more, is when you tuck us in at night and read us a story. Can you do that tonight?" Alexis asked. Rick's face fell.

"I don't think I can do it just yet. I still have work to do, and even though I'll try to stop in to see you on occasion, I will be busy the other items. But I'll always give you both big hugs when I'm here. Okay?"

"We like your hugs, Daddy. You want to play a game with us?" Alexis asked, with puppy dog eyes.

"Yeah! Play Candyland with us!" Lacey added.

"Okay! Let's go play Candyland. Who'll be blue? Can I be blue?" And Rick walked upstairs to their room with them. Just as he was about to head upstairs, Joe walked up to him.

""Here's your coffee, Rick. They've missed you so much." Joe said, with a smile.

"Thanks, Joe. I missed them, too. And Kate, most of all." Rick headed upstairs with the girls.

#

About three hours later, Rick came back down the stairs. He was carrying with difficulty both Alexis and Lacey in his arms and was very carefully walking down the stairs. Both of the girls were giving him kisses on his cheeks.

"Daddy, I wish you didn't have to go. We like playing games with you. You're almost as good as Uncle Joe!"

At that, Rick looked over in Joe's direction. Joe just looked at him, and shrugged, like What-Can-You-Do? type movement.

"Well, I'm glad you are having so much fun with Uncle Joe. Everything I know, I learned from him. So he's almost an honorary Daddy, you know?"

"When will you come back?" Lacey said, seeming depressed.

"Either tomorrow or Wednesday. For sure!" He said to both of his girls. "Now, let me kiss you goodbye until I see you again, okay?"

"Okay, Daddy," Alexis said. "Sure, Daddy," Lacey said, with her eyes down.

"Girls, I want you to remember one very important thing. I will always love you, and love your mother. No matter what happens. Forever and ever, until the end of time. Okay? So, don't forget that. If you ever want to talk to me, I'll always care about you, and help you. Always." Rick then bent over and kissed each of them on the forehead. "Say hi to your Mommy, too. I'll see you in a day or two. Let Uncle Joe tuck you in tonight."

"Bye, Daddy." They both said to him, in unison. He reached down and squeezed a shoulder on each of them, and then opened the door, and left.

As much as it was great seeing them again, and hugging them, and kissing them. It was a very bittersweet moment because this might be the beginning of the end. He hoped not, but he thought back to his phone call to his lawyer, before he arrived here.

########################################

He had called Ron Weber around noon. And because they were expecting him to call, he was put through to Ron right away.

"Ron? Did you find anything out? He asked.

"Well, we have some good news and some not so good news. The good is that we do know the company. They are called Corazón de la pasión Films. As you can probably figure out from the name, they are not an American company. They are based out of Mexico, and although they have similar laws, they are different enough for us to delay things a bit."

"Wel, I guess I have to ask. How much of a delay?" Rick asked uncertainty in his voice.

"Probably at least a week. Currently, we are doing the paperwork, and submitting the legal documents and we hope to be talking to them tomorrow. I don't expect much from it, but they will at least be served so that they know we mean business. Back on the good side of things, this company has a reputation for fly-by-night operations. They've closed down twice in the last five years, only to re-open again. In each case of closing down, they were subject to a lawsuit, and the people suing them were able to make them stop. But on the not-so-good side of things, they never got the proof of who was in the videos."

"Oh, crap," Rick said to himself.

"Yeah, Rick. I know. The only thing I can think of is that maybe there will either be some kind of paper trail about this, and we can find out who authorized it. Or else, maybe there is something in the movie that could prove it wasn't you? I know I'm grasping at straws, but that's how we currently stand."

"Okay, Ron. Thanks for that. Please keep following up on what you've been doing. I'll grit my teeth, and watch the whole thing myself. Maybe I'll get lucky. Thanks, again."

########################################

That night, Rick sat himself down, turned on his laptop, and watched the whole movie. The guy looked so much like him, it made him squirm in his seat. He'd never seen Gina in less than s professional dress, so he didn't know what to look for on her double. She *looked* right, but beyond that, he wasn't sure. As for the fake-Rick. The only thing he noticed was that the guy's voice seemed a bit lower than his. But not much else.

Rick ate in his room again. He also had a very unsettled night of sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

**Some of you need to chill it's just a fictional story and also threating a writer is not going to make them change the story if you can't see the difference between real life and fictional I think you need to leave this site.**

It's now Tuesday. Rick gets up, and looks for any new articles in the news. He also decides to send Kate a bouquet of flowers. In the past, he'd spoken with Kate about flowers and their meanings, because he'd use them in his books, at times. He decided to send her a dozen red roses, and a box of coffee-flavored chocolate candies, since he knew how much she liked coffee. He asked for them to be delivered at 8 AM, to be there when she showed up. He had them include a card with them as well.

Once that was done, he calls Joe to ask a question.

When Joe answered, Rick said. "Joe? Do you know if Kate got a cup of coffee, this morning?"

"Uh, no. She was busy packing up your stuff last night and this morning, and didn't have a chance to make one for herself. Why?"

"She was packing my stuff up? Are we talking clothes? Or more than that?" Rick asked back, very worried.

"It was pretty much all your clothes. She had some guys come over here to pick it up. I imagine you'll be getting it in the next hour or three." After a slight pause, he continued. "Rick? She wasn't wearing her wedding or engagement ring. I don't know where they are, but they weren't on her.

"Crap. Okay, thanks Joe. I'll talk to you later." And before Joe could say anything else, he hung up. Rick then called a local coffee shop, that he and Kate would visit pretty regularly. He ordered a special coffee for her, and a bear claw. He described what he wanted done, and arraged to have it delivered by 9 AM. Once that was done, he then started doing online, for that Mexican film company. He looked up Corazón de la Pasión Films and he looked up Heart of Passion Films. He got more hits with the Spanish version of the name. He also researched the film with him in it.

Apparently, it came out on July 12th. He looked that up, and it was the day after he'd left Las Vegas. That actually made sense. He knew that in Los Angeles, there was always a call for look-alines. But he also remembered, all the different ads for famous singing stars, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and others, quite a fewe of whom were dead. So if they could find an Elvis Presley, could they find a Richard Castle? He got on a flight for Las Vegas, and arrived there later that day. However, before he left, he told the front desk that a delivery was coming for him, and that they should put it in his room.

#

In the mean time, Kate had headed in to work. On top of all the other problems she was having, she was grumpy from no coffee. It had taken so long to get Rick's crap together, that she was going to be late for work if she stopped anywhere. So she headed in. Coffee-less.

When she got to her desk, she was surprised. Not only was there a cup of coffee, and a pastry on her desk, but there were also a dozen red roses. As well. She wondered who the roses were from. She looked at the card that came with the flowers. It said.

My heart only blooms for thee. The sunshine of your love makes my heart grow larger and stronger. But only for thee. – RC

When she first read that, her heart flipped a bit. What a kind, considerate man, she thought. But the feeling only lasted a few seconds. She took the roses and the card, and threw them away. Who does he think he is? Cyrano de Bergerac? Doesn't he realize how deep of a hole he's in?

She then turned and saw the coffee and bear claw. Well, I don't want to be stupid here. I can definitely use a cup of coffee. And a little something to eat. That's fine, she thought.

Shortly after she finished the pastry, Espo told her that they had a body. She grabbed her stuff, and followed him to the car. They'd had this argument before. This time, she drove them to the crime scene. When they got there, the found Lanie already busy examining the body. She looked up and saw Kate and Espo approaching.

"Hey there, you two. Where's your boss?" Lanie queried when they got close.

Espo said. "He's talking to Montgomery, and he'll probably be along in a few."

"So what do you got for us, Lanie?" Kate asked.

"I'll know more back in the lab, but this seems to be more mob hits. See the double-tap? The unusual thing is that someone also gouged his eyes out, too."

"Ew. Did the eyes happen before or after death?" Espo asked Lanie.

"It happened pre-mortem. I'd be willing to say that this guy was in a lot of pain when he left the world."

"Any TOD yet? Any ID yet?" Kate wondered aloud.

"Well, TOD is about one to two AM this morning. That's about six or seven hours ago. He didn't have any ID on him, so I'm guessing I'll be running his prints back at the lab. I'll let you know as soon as I know, okay?'

"Thanks, Lanie." Kate said. "Come on, Espo. Lets head back."

As they were heading for their care, Detective Anderson showed up. They briefed him, and he said he had an idea. He went back over to the body, and took a picture of the victim's face. When he came back, he told Kate that he'd email her the picture, and she could take it up to OCCB to see if they recognize him up there. It might be faster then searching for his prints. Kate nodded, and she and Espo drove off.

When they arrived at the Precinct, Kate headed right up to the seventh floor, to talk to Detective Daniels. When she got up there, he was pleased to see her.

"Hello, Beckett. What brings you by my department?"

"I got called out to another body drop today. It looks like a mob hit, so I wanted to pass his face by you to see if you might recognize him."

"Sure, no problem. What do ya got?"

"It's not pleseant, his eyes were gouged out. But… here it is." And she held up her phone to him, with the picture on it.

"Wow, that *is* bad. But I cant say I recognize him. But let me ask one or two other guys. Maybe they might have. They've been around longer than me. Come on."

They walked over to an older man, probably in his upper forties. "Hey, Frankie. How's it going? You gonna introduce me to your friend here?" The man asked.

"Oh, sure, Reggie. This is Detective Kate Beckett, from down in Homicde. They got a body that they're not sure yet how it is. We think it might be mob related. Can you tell me who it is?"

"Okay. Lets see."

Daniels showed Kate's phone to the man. "Wow!" Reggie said. "Somebody was trying to send a message. But yeah, I know the guy. He's Donny Carter, but they used to call him Donny the Carver, cuz he'd kill people by carvin' off bits of them until they died. This was one sick bastard. His specialty was extracting peoples eyeballs, while they were alive. He'd then kill them and shove their eyes in their mouth. Like I said, he was sick."

Kate spoke up. "Reggie? Why would anyone try to kill him?"

"Well, did Daniels tell you about the expansion the mob is doing? He works for the mob that has the space that gonna be expanded into. They must have gotten rid of him, and decided to sort of use his signature against him."

"Well," Kate said. "I must admit that I never thought I'd say this but, thank goodness for normal homicides that I deal with most of the time." She said with a smile at the end.

"Thanks, Reggie." Daniels said, and they walked away. "Are we still on for tonight?"

"Yeah, I've got a friend that owns Q1, It's a really nice restaurant, and they have two rooms that can be used for private dining, so no one will hear us talking."

"Okay. Do you want me to meet you there? Or do you want me to pick you up?"

"Uh, no. I don't want to show up there together. People could talk. I'll just meet you there. When you arrive, tell them that you are a friend of Madison, and that you need to talk to the owner. She'll bring you back to the table."

"Got it."

When Rick got to Vegas, he went straight to the MGM Grand, to talk to a guy. He went to the front desk and asked to speak with Mr. David Glassman. They asked who he was, and he told them his name, and that he was David's close friend. After a wait of about 10 minutes, he was show to a rear office, where the sound of the slot machines and music was almost toally muted. He knocked on the door to the office, and he heard a voice saying "Come in." He opened the door, and saw man who looked about 30 years old.

"David! How are you doing? Long time no see." Rick began with.

"Yeah, it's been so long. Like maybe 10 days?" And David and Rick laughed. "What can I do for you, Rick?"

"David, I'm in need of finding someone."

"Aren't we all?" David replied. "Is she blonde, brunette, or a red-head?" He asked with a smirk.

"No, nothing like that. I'm looking for a guy." Rick said.

"Oh, this should be good. And what kid of guy are we talking about? Does he do some special kind of work for the discerning buyer?"

"Nope, not that kind of guy. I'm looking for a guy that looks like me. Maybe someone who goes to events to make money supposedly being me?"

"I got it. Okay, I have friends who work with impersonators. I'll need to call them, and see if anyone has booked *you* for an event. Are you gonna be around for a while?" David asked him.

"Sure, I'll be here for today, and if I have to, I can be here till tomorrow morning. Then I head home. Here's my number. Call me if anything comes up." He hands David his card.

"Uh, Rick? Does this possibly have anything to do with that sex-tape you made?" When he heard that, Rick groaned.

"Yes and no. Yes there was a sex-tape made, but no, I wasn't in it. I'm trying to find the guy who played me." Rick had a very serious look on his face. "Listen, David. If you can find this guy, there's a $10,000 finders fee for you. If you can find him, and have him with you, call me. I'm hoping I can arrange some kind of price to get him up to New York. This is very important to me. The $10,000 can be used as needed to convince people you talk to, to look harder. Have you seen the video yourself?"

"Well, I haven't watched it all the way through, but I saw the first 15 minutes. I could have swore that guy was you."

"And that's the whole problem. If he only resembled me, it wouldn't be such a big deal. But because he looks so much like me, my wife is threatening to divorce me. I need to find this guy and get him to New York. Please?"

"Okay, Rick. I'll do what I can. If he's in Vegas or the surrounding area, we should find him. I'll give you a call when I find him and he's with me. But I gotta tell you. This will cost you an appearance at an event down here sometime soon."

"That is totally okay. As long as I have a heads up on when, I'm sure I can work things out for you. If you can find this guy, you'll be *my* life-saver. Thanks, David." They shook hands, and he left.

For the time being, he booked a room for the night, and scheduled a flight back for tomorrow at noon. Then he went to a nice restaurant, and tried to eat a nice meal.

#

Back in New York, Kate came home from work, and went into her closet. She picked out a nice dress. She didn't want anything too suggestive. But she chose her blue Herve Ledger dress that came down to mid-thing, and had an open back. She didn't put her wedding or engagement rings back on. Now, they are tucked away, in the back of her jewelry box, along with the necklace that Rick had bought her way back in the Hamptons before she got pregnant. Maybe things would work out for them, but maybe things might work out for the new, and she'll never wear them again.

For now, though, she was just going to talk, have a nice meal, and be comfortable with a friend. She then caught a cab, and headed for Q1.

She'd made sure she was going to arrive at least 15 minutes early. She did not want anyone to see her walking in with another man. True, things might change in the future, but that bridge had not yet been crossed. She saw her friend Madison, when she arrived.

"K-Bex! It's so good to see you! We've got your table all set up for you. Are you and Rick having a romantic dinner?" Maddie asked, with a saucy wink. She led Kate to a table in the side rear, that was curtained off from the rest of the restaurant.

"No, not today, I'm afraid. I'm just having dinner with a colleague, to talk over a few things, and I wanted to come back and taste the cuisine you have here."

"Oh, really? Is this colleague male or female?"

"Um, it's a he. I'm guessing he'll be here in about 10 or 15 minutes. If you could just send him back here when he arrives, I'd appreciate it. Okay?" She looked to Maddie with pleading eyes.

"Okay, Kate. I can be circumspect, too. Do you want me to bring over that Sancerra wine you like so much?"

"Uh, not really. I don't want the side effects, like I've enjoyed other times. Maybe just a house white wine, if you could."

"You got it. Coming right up." And Madison walked off, with a purose.

A few minutes later, a waiter arrived with the wine. He poured her a glass, and asked if her dining partner would like some, too.

"I'm not sure what they'll want. We'll let you know when they get here."

"Yes, of course." And he walked away.

About 10 minutes later, Kate can hear Madison's voice getting closer. "Yes, she's right over here. If you need anything, my waiter Renaldo will be serving you."

The curtain is slightly pulled back, and Detective Daniels comes through. The first thing he sees, is Kate's outfit.

"Wow! You are truly beautiful, Kate. You're stunning!" He says in amazement.

This causes Kate to blush. Though it's true, Rick would always take her out, and pay her heart-felt compliments, it feels strange, but nice to hear it from another man.

"Please. Sit down. I'm sure that the waiter will be around here soon. I've just been having a glass of wine. I'm sure he'll offer you one too. And just so you know, the woman who brought you back here is a friend of mine from High School. She's told me that the dinner is comped, so you don't need to worry about what you'd like to order. It's all quite good." Actually, that wasn't true. Kate had planned to pay for it all, herself. But she didn't want to make him feel weird, so by making that they are *both* getting it for free, she hopes he'll let it slide. Madison already had her credit card information on file so that it could be automatically done at the end, with no need of an obvious payment.

Frank sat down, and looked across at her. His eyes were solely focused on her. But after a slightly awkward silence, he said. "I've heard a lot of good things about this place. I'm told that have something called Pumpkin Gnocchi here, which is apparently to die for. I've always been a exotic food fan, so that might be good."

They both picked up their menus and perused them.

"I know! Maddie has such good food here."

The waiter appeared, and asked. "Would the gentleman like to have a drink of some sort?"

"Um, yeah. Could I have a dark ale, whatever you have available."

"Of course. I'll be right back, sir."

In just a moment, he was back with a cold bottle, and a beer glass. He removed the top, and expertly poured it into the glass for Daniels, with no more than half an inch of foam at the top. Would you both like to order now?"

"Yes, thank you. I'm kind of partial to seafood, so I'll have the Lobster Parfait, followed by the Langoustine, and then I'll end up with a Strawberry Crème Brule." Kate told him.

"And I'll have the Filet Mignon, with baked potatoe with butter. As a side dish, I'll have some of the Pumpkin Gnochhi. For the desert, I'm curios to know if you have any pie."

"Yes, of course, sir. We have Dark Columbian Chocolate pie, and we also have Apricot-Kiwi pie. Both have been made fresh, today."

"Then I'll have the Columbian Chocolate pie, please."

"Of course, sir. Very good. We'll have that up for you right away." The waiter tilted his head, in a sort of bow, and then walked away to put their orders in.

Daniels started the conversation first. "So, have you made any decisions yet?"

"Nothing unchangeable. I got all of Rick's stuff together, and sent it over to his hotel room. Mostly clothes. And… this…" She held up her naked left hand.

"Does that mean you're divorcing him? Or is it just symbolic?"

"Symbolic, I guess. I suppose I still love him some." She said, looking down into her lap.

"When do you think that decision, one way or another, will come up?"

"I'll give him some time. He says he's investigating to see who could have *starred* in that movie. A part of me can't believe he did that, but when I watched it, it looked just like him, sounded just like him. I just don't know."

"How are the girls taking it?"

"Yesterday, they were so happy. He'd been by in the afternoon, and he'd played with them for like, several hours. Joe said that the girls were sad to see him leave. I worry a lot about how they'd handle it if we do break up. He's their father, you know? He's always had a huge place in their lives. If the worst happens… If I find someone else, he'll still want to be a part of their lives, and I can't see taking that away from them… or him." Kate had light tears dripping down her cheeks, so she quickly used her napkin to gently wipe them away.

Frank reached across to her other hand. "Please don't cry, Kate. You need to keep hope that no matter which direction you choose, things will work out better for you."

Kate sobbed one more time. "I know. I g-guess you're right. I know that when Rick and I got married, I never imagined what life would be like with the Famous Mystery Author Richard Castle. We were just two High School kids, just teenagers." Kate paused to sigh.

"For the most part, we've worked through the changes in lifestyle pretty well. But I have to admit that the women that come to his events… can get rather… aggressive, or over the top around him. It bothers me. There was a time in the early days, when they'd ask him to sign their chests. However, when I told Rick how much that bothered me, he stopped doing it. I had felt like that's how it should be. If I did something he didn't like, I stopped doing that. If he did something I didn't like, he stopped." She drew in a deep breath, as if she was trying to get it all out.

"But the real problem is… his writing appeals to a good demographic. And most of them seem to be female. All the books he writes are what keep us happy, safe, and content. Until now. How do I live with that? I'll tell you this, though. During the last year, we've had many problems with Black pawn, and the things he has to do for his publisher. The woman in the video with him? That's his publisher. Whenever she has a question for him, she calls, and he has to say. "How high?" Things were a lot better before that. The owner, Mr. Grimm, did much of the publishers work. However, he's getting older, and it's tiring him out with all the things he has to do, so he has elevated this Gina to be Rick's full time publisher. And with her in that position, the contract he has keeps him jumping."

"Sounds to me like this Gina might be the main problem. Can't you request someone different?" Frank asked her.

"Nope, she's the neice of the owner, so she has the say." Kate paused and looked at the Detective. "Look, I'm sorry I've been ranting here. It isn't your problem. Moreover, I'd like to thank you for letting me whine about it. I think it's very sweet of you. How about if we change the subject, okay?"

"Sure, what would you like to talk about?"

"I wanted to thank you for taking care of the girls last week. When Joe got an emergency call, and had to leave them with me, it was so considerate of you to watch them and play with them while I was out on the pickup of that suspect. When I got them home that night, you were all they could talk about, before bed. You were so great with them."

"Hey, it was no problem for me. They were having so much fun, I only had to make sure we stayed in the break room. Plus, any of the female detectives, so it was so cute to see me with them. A couple of them even hit on me!" He said with a wink and a smile.

Kate laughed at that. "I'm happy to help you get a date, when I can." And she smiled at him in return.

"Actually, this may not be a normal date, but I'll take this over one of them, any day. You're fun and fascinating to talk to. What more could I ask for?"

Kate bent her head and blushed a bit. By this point, their food had arrived. They dug in, and were soon enjoying it very much. Maddie had obviously had her chefs do an incredible job with the food. It was mostly a quiet meal, punctuated with the occasional comment regarding how good it was, or a brief moan at the exquisite sensations on the tongue.

#

The next morning, Rick got up, and ordered a steak and eggs breakfast in his room. It was really very good. Once he'd eaten, he took a shower, and got his belongings together. After that, he went online with his laptop, and was looking up locations in town to see who else he could call for ideas of who'd be promoting a Rick Castle imposter. After an hour, he got a call. The Caller ID said it was from his friend David.

"David, how are you? Do you have any news for me?" He asked.

"I have a lead on the guy. His name is Gerald Mannon. He switches on and off between you, and Jason Bateman. He typically appears at impromptu events as one or the other of you, to help promote things like movies, store openings, and the occasional crashing of a wedding."

"That's great, David. When can we talk to him?"

"We have a small problem. He is currently in Los Angeles today, but he is supposedly coming back to Vegas tomorrow or Thursday. I've already got an in with his manager. When he checks in with his manager, the manager will tell him that I'm looking for him to do a special gig in New York, since you are supposedly on a book tour through the southern states for the next week or so. How much should I tell him he'll be paid?"

"Tell him it'll be $5,000 for two days work, and that his air-fare and meals will be taken care of in the package. He'll be doing another impromptu meeting at the 12th Precinct. You'll arrange a time with me so that I can be there during that time. Okay?"

"Uh, sure. You're not going to arrest him, are you? Do you just want him to waltz into a police precinct and do what?"

"Just tell him that there is a celebrity imposter get-together going on, and that they need as many Rick Castle's as they can get. Please assure him that nothing bad will happen to him. And I'm telling you that nothing bad will happen to him. I just need to arrange for Kate to see him and me. Oh, that reminds me. Tell him he'll need to wear a tux. That will be provided to him as well. Just have him give you his sizes, and you can tell me and I'll arrange it to be at the hotel for him."

"Alright, Rick. I'll do that. And Rick? That appearance you'll need to make? It'll probably be in October, okay? We have a Halloween thing going on, and have some real celebrities to be there, would do wonders for us. Is that okay with you?"

"That is famulous David. I'll be looking forward to it then. Remember, call me when you make contact. Oh, one more thing I almost forgot. If, by some bit of Murphy's law, the $5,000 doesn't sway him, Tell him you need to check with the promoter. You can go as high as $10,000 if you need to. You know I'm good for it. Does that work for you?"

"You bet. Talk to you soon. Bye Rick."

#

But at the end of the night before, Kate and Frank were just finishing up a wonderful meal. When they were done eating, they had each ordered a coffee aperitif, for the ending. Instead of the normal waiter, Madison brought the coffee over herself, to ask how the meal had been. She was showered with compliments and accolades on the taste of the food, the look of the food, and the aroma of the food.

"You know, if you guys were that happy with it, I wonder if I can get you guys hired on at the New York Times, to be the food critic for me. With words like that, my next restaurant will be top of the line!"

"Really, Maddie. It was wonderful. As good as you've ever done." Kate said, in closing.

"Well, I also wanted to be here to tell you that, as I told Kate before, this is all on the house. I would hope that you can tell people and have them stop by." When Madison turned to include Kate in the compliment, she gave her a slight wink, which Kate interpreted to mean that her credit card info would be used to pay for the meal, including tip.

"Thanks, Maddie. I guess it's time to head out. I hope we see you again, soon!" Kate said to her, quite happily.

The Detective walked alongside Kate, as they headed to the outside, his hand on her back, just below the open back. Kate felt the warmth of his hand, and it reminded her of all the times Rick had been there for her.

He opened the door for her, and she walked out. He called a cab for her. As it rolled up and stopped near the curb. Frank pulled the rear door open, so that he was standing on the front side of the door, this way, Kate would go in the door to sit down. But before she entered, she stood for a moment, looking into his eyes.

"Thank you, Frank. I know we just talked, but it was a delightful dinner, and you set my mind at ease on a lot. I appreciate it, so much."

"It's not a problem Kate. No matter when you need to talk, or even something more. I'm here to help you. In all the time we've worked together, I've come to realize how great of a mother you, and how great of a person overall. If you need me, just call." Then, just as she was about to crouch and get into the cab, he leaned over and briefly kissed her on the cheek.

And just as he did that, a flurry of paparazzi camera flashes went of, aimed at them. Kate blushed, and quickly got into the cab, shutting the door behind her. She quickly gave her address to the cabbie, and started to cry. The last thing she wanted was more fodder for the media beast. What with the situation she had going on now, she surely didn't need any more grist for the mill. She sobbed all the way home, and even until she was laying alone in her empty bed.

"Rick? How could you do this to us? Kate asked clutching his pillow as she cried herself to sleep again.


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey I'm fixing chapter 10 soon, when I get my lapto back I will.**

When Kate got up the next day, she showered, got dressed, and went to make herself a cup of coffee. 'Thank goodness I have time for this today.' She thought to herself.. Then, dreading it, she checked the paper, and there it was. Two pictures of her with Daniels. One walking out of the restaurant, and the other was the kiss he gave her. But sadly, the real topper were the captions beneath them.  
"Boy, she didn't wait long after finding out about the sex-tape. Or did this start even before that? Is she going to do her own sex-tape?"  
When Kate read that, she was so ashamed. All the things she'd complained about Rick and how he appears in the media, and she did it herself. And all she wanted was a nice talk with a friendly ear to talk to. Oh, God.  
When Rick became so successful, as a writer, he did a few book tours, and aside from the tours, and book readers, people weren't all the aware of him. He wasn't a celebrity. But around the time he got his 5th book out, he began to be on the media's radar. The fact that he was a young, ruggedly handsome, wealthy man was just what the media wanted. Black Pawn had been okay about it. They did play out his good looks, and his charm, but they didn't make him out to be a bed-hopping playboy. Things worked out pretty well. But even though Black Pawn didn't do it, the media always wants the stories as wild and sordid as they could get.

But Rick was pretty good at handling them. Being nice, friendly, and charming as needed, but not letting them cross the line of the vows he'd made to her when they were married. But Kate. She never really had to deal with the publicity of things. She went to crime scenes, and the only cameras taking pictures were the CSU people. It was never about her. And that suited her just fine. She had a job to do, she liked it, and she didn't want any kind of media people making her out to be a bimbette, or a celebutante.  
She was just Kate Castle. Well, Kate Beckett, because she used her maiden name at work to avoid drawing unwanted attention. And that was fine. Unfortunately, the problem now is that she knew of how the media handles things, but she had no experience in the deep end of the pool. And now, she'd made a huge mess of things. How was it even possible to fix it?

However, that problem had to be shuffled to the bottom of the pile, because she just got a text from Lanie, saying she'd found something critical at the morgue. She took her coffee, topped it off, and headed out the door, saying goodbye to Joe and the girls. Plus, she took the celebrity Page 6 section with her, so that it wouldn't be sitting around the house. She'd throw it out somewhere else, where they couldn't see it.

As she was walking into the morgue, her boss was there too.  
"Hey there, Anderson. I understand we found something good?"  
"Mmm-hmm. I'm not sure what, but I guess we'll find out. By the way? How is Q1? I hear they have some excellent cuisine there, even if the prices are kind of high." He said to her, with a teasing tone in his voice.  
Kate just blushed a bit, and said nothing. They both entered the morgue. "What've you got for us, Lanie?" Anderson started with.  
"Well, I found something quite unusual here, and I'm hoping it might break the case for you. Beyond that, I think I need to have a *little talk* with my girl here, afterwards, if you don't mind." Lanie tossed back at them.  
Kate groaned, and slightly shook her head. "So what's so unusual?" She asked.  
"Look over here. You see this bullet hole?" She pointed at the hole in the middle of the victim's forehead. "I dug the bullet out, and I found it's an unusual type of ammunition."  
"Really? How unusual?" Anderson asked her.  
"It's probably easier if I just show you." Lanie led them to a nearby bench. She reached over, and picked up a small Petri dish, and it it was the bullet in question. "It's a .45 bullet, 250 grains. Notice anything?" She asked them.  
Kate spoke first. "Either that's a very shiny, polished bullet, or…"  
And Anderson finished. "Or that's made of silver, right?"  
"That's right. Specifically, it's called Britainnia Silver, which is almost 96% pure silver. In this case, the remaining 4% is copper. I've never seen a bullet made of silver, let alone silver as pure as this. The only type more pure, is called Fine Silver, and it's 99.9% pure." I'm hoping that this can help narrow down who could have used this type ofammunition. Just one bullet would cost about $8 to $10 *each*. I've looked, and you cannot buy these in stores. This had to have been made from scratch. I'm hoping that this will lead you in the right direction."

"Wow! Thanks, Lanie. You did a great job. Could you please email us with the specifics of the bullet? We'll probably need that for matching to evidence." Anderson complimented her, and started to walk away.  
Lanie gave Kate a stony look of "don't you dare leave!" It was so severe, that Kate called out. "I'll see you back at the Precinct, Anderson." He just grunted as the doors closed behind him.  
"Girlfriend?!" Lanie asked, in a threatening tone. Then she puused. "What the hell did you think you were doing, getting in a picture with that guy? Are you crazy? What's gonna happen when Rick sees this?" Then, after a pregnant pause, Lanie asked. "You… didn't go home with him, did you?"  
Kate groaned, again. "It was all innocent, Lanie. I'll admit that I didn't expect the kiss at the end, but the whole dinner was me bing able to talk to someone I can trust, about what my options are. I was crying as the cab drove away. And, NO! I didn't go home with him. It wasn't that kind of date!" Kate said, with a bit of whining in her tone.  
"Heaven, help us! Lordy, girl. I just don't see what you thought you were going to accomplish with this. Why didn't you have him over at your loft. You could have had Joe with you to act as a chaperone if anybody asked. Hmm?"  
"I'll admit that, the thought did cross my mind, but I really didn't want Joe there. He's Rick's brother. He'd take Rick's side. He's already told me he can't and won't believe that Rick did this. But have you seen that video, yet?"  
"Yes, I have. I watched it all the way through, although it made me feel a bit 'squicky' to watch it. But I made it through, and I'll admit that it sure looks like him, not that I've seen him with his clothes off." When Kate gave her a look, Lanie continued. "I'm just saying! The situation still remains. What are you going to do about your little paparazzi media splash?"

"I'm not sure, Lanie. For as much as a media newby as I am, even I know I can't just call a press conference and say 'I did not kiss that man!'. It would just cause more crap. For the moment, I can only hope that if I ignore it, it will eventually fade away. Do you have any better ideas?"  
"No, not really. I think the fade away option is probably best. But I think, just to try not to hide things, you should probably tell Rick."  
"Ugh! That is going to severely be difficult. I'll see what I can do next time we talk."  
"That's good, Kate. Talking is probably the best action you have right now. And for Rick, too."  
"Okay. Well, I have to head back to the Precinct. I'll be in touch. Bye, Lanie."  
"Bye, girlfriend!" And Lanie gave her a hug before she headed out the door.  
#

At about that time, Rick was about to board a plane back to New York. He didn't want to jinx it, but he was feeling more confident that he could get this resolved between him and Kate. He had arrived at the airport two hours beforehand, and had to admit. It was nice not having Gina always on his case to do everything she needed for the book tour. He had a chance to pick up a copy of the NY Times and the NY Ledger. He passed the time waiting to board, by reading the Times. He felt a bit like he'd been living on another planet, and he was now getting back to the normal daily flow of things like, Massuchusetts legalizes gay marriage, and there were apparent admissions that the government *might* have overstated Iraq's capacity for Weapons of Mass Destruction.  
Eventually, they called for bording his flight. He got onboard, and sat down in his seat. Whenever he was flying alone, he preferred to sit in an aisle seat, so that he could people-watch more easily. It's just that today, he kinda wished he'd gotten a window seat. That way he'd be out of people's view. It was far from universal, but he'd already gotten bad looks from about four or five people. They appeared to recognize him, and

immediately gave him a very bad look, like he'd been examined and found to be wanting.  
Just before the flight took off, there was still no one sitting in the window seat, so he shifted over there, and pulled a light blanket and pillow out of the overhead bin, and, after buckling himself in, he closed the window shade and tried to get some shut-eye.  
His ploy worked pretty well. Perhaps too well. Normally they'd ask even sleeping first class passengers if they wanted a meal, but he wasn't even bothered. At one point, he looked over at the stewardess for his section, and she could have killed him with the look, alone. He just kept quiet. Instead, he pulled out the NY Ledger, to see how badly he was doing today.

Aside from a remembrance commemorating the death of Marlon Brando, the only other pictues he saw were…  
"Kate?!" Rick was momentarily stunned. There were two pictures of Kate. Exiting a restaurant, and another getting a kiss. Holy crap. What's going on? He knew Kate avoided publicity like the plague. How is it possible she's on Page 6? He stared at the first picture of them coming out of the restaurant, and realized which one it was. And he also realized who the owner of it was. He'd have to call Madison when he got into town.  
But Kate was dressed up in one of her gorgeous dresses. It was short, showed off her body to it's maximum potential. What was she doing wearing that with some other schmuck! And for that matter, who WAS this other schmuck! He really needed to find this guy, and have a long talk with him, and tell him that, separation or not, Hands off! Goddamn it!"

At this point in the flight, there was only about 30 minutes left. He put the papers to the side, and just sat for the rest of the flight. Anger inside him building and building. In fact, when it came time to disembark from the plane, he was absolutely NOT the friendly, charming book writer. Instead, he was beginning to wonder if Kate would be the one to investigate the murder of the other bastard! When he got his suitcase, along with his laptop bag, he headed for a cab, and took it straight to his hotel.

When he got there, he found four big boxes in his hotel room. He looked them over, and his heart dropped. They contained all his clothes and things. Kate had packed them up the day he headed out, and here they were. It was hard to belive that all his stuff (other than his books) took up such a small space. The loft was so big, and yet everything else in it was family stuff. Things he'd bought for Kate, for the girls. Even some things for Joe. But these four boses. These were all that he, alone, owned. His entire life, over a quarter of a century, was reduced down to just this.

All his anger had faded away almost in an instant. Now, he was overwhelmed by the loss. If he couldn't resolve this, and if Kate didn't forgive him, he'd never again go to sleep next to her, or wake up next to her. He'd only have rare, scheduled chances to see the girls, not the spur of the moment times when he'd play a game with them, take them to the park, take them to DisneyWorld. His perception changed. The four boxes he had, altered from being all that he had left, to being his entire world. He knew he'd never find a woman to love as much as he loves Kate. No one could come close to her. He knew that he'd never marry anyone else.

His perception changed again. He saw himself 25, 50 years down the road. Being all by himself. Thinking of only the old days, when he had Kate, when he had the girls. He'd probably keep tabs on how the girls had aged, how they'd do at school, and at college. He'd never get the chance to scare their boyfriends, to make sure the girls were treated right. But then his mind thought of how bad things could go. Would Kate marry this other guy? Would he make her happy? Would he give her the next baby that she wanted to have? Would he become the father that the girls would look to when they had questions or problems? Would they stop talking to him? Would they forget about him?  
Rick moped for a bit. As much as he'd done in the last few days, all of it relied on Kate, and how well he could prove to her how much he loved her, how well he could prove to her that he had always been true to their vows.

But he had to keep believing that he'd be able to do it. Otherwise, what was the point. He put the boxes in the bedroom closet, and unpacked his suitcase into the drawers of the small dresser. He looked out the window. Being on the sixth floor of a building in New York City wasn't very high. But it was a very inspring view. He could see the Atlantic Ocean, and the Statue of Liberty, and all the boats making there way back and forth to New Jersey. All those people.

He got his laptop out, and after he went online, he called the 12th Precinct, and asked for Captain Montgomery. He was in luck. The Captain was in, and had the time to talk.  
"Roy? Sorry to bother you. How are Evelyn and the girls?"  
"Not bad, Rick. My youngest just turned five, and she wants to spend time again at your place, with your daughers. What's up?"  
"Have you heard about my latest trouble?"  
"Yeah. Heard about it, but not seen it. Why?"  
"I don't expect you to believe me… YET. But I'm trying to arrange a proof of innocence for Kate. Kind of like I'm proving my alibi. What I'd like from you is the chance. Can you help me?"  
"If you didn't do it, and you can prove it to her, then I'm all for helping another fellow with marriage problems. What do you need me to do?"

"I'm trying to arrange for the guy who was actually *in* the movie to come out here. He won't know that I'm here, At least, not me here. I'm having him come out for a Richard Castle imposter get together. I'd like to have it up there, on the Homicide floor. If this works as I hope, you'll have him and me in one of the interrogation rooms."  
"And who will be interrogating you?" Roy asked.  
"Probably you, since I am the husband of one of your people, you'd want it all done aboveboard. Beforehand, I'm going to tell him that I am another imposter, and that we are going to pretend to have committed a minor, but embarrassing crime of some sort last week. I'm not sure yet what it will be, but it'll be harmless."  
"Oh, I know, you could have either landed a hot air balloon in Central Park, or.. like, I don't know, stealing a police horse, and rode it across Central Park… naked." Roy said, trying to get into the mindset.  
"Yeah! When you consider how people seem to be seeing me now, it should be totally believable. Then, I need you to make sure that Kate is among those in the observation room, watching this."  
"Okay, what happens after that?"

"Part way through, I'll try to get him to admit that he was in that movie you've heard of me being in. If he will admit it,, that should prove to Kate that I didn't do it. After that, I need to find out from him, who is responsible for it. Can you help me?"  
"Things up here have been pretty focused on quite a few mob hits that are going on. Every Detective has been focusing on it quite heavily. I suppose I could try to lighten up the mood for an hour. When would you need that hour?"  
"I'm not 100% sure, but I'm thinking Thursday. Maybe around lunchtime? Either Thursday or Friday for sure."  
"Alright, Rick. I can do this for you. But only on one condition." Roy sounded pretty serious.  
"Um, okay. What condition?" He asked, tentatively.  
"You need to write off that $200 bucks that I owe you for the poker games. The last two times we played, you kicked all our asses. Thank goodness Kate wasn't playing. I'd have owed three times that much!"  
"Not a problem, Roy. Consider it waived. If you don't mind, I'll probably give you a call tomorrow to try to lock things in, is that alright?"  
"Yep. I may even have Evelyn leave the kids with her mother, and show up here to watch this too."  
"That's totally okay, Roy. The more people that Kate see's me proving myself to her, the more she'll know how much I love her. By the way, do you happen to know who was in the picture of Kate on Page 6, this morning?"  
"Yeah, he's a detective up in Organized Crime. Daniels is his name." Roy paused for a thoughtful moment. "Are you thinking of committing a crime, Rick? A beating? Or a murder? I don't recommend it. He's one of our guy." Roy ended, with a stern sound to his voice.  
"No, nothing like that. But I do intend to have a big talk with him. Listen, I have to go. Got more things to check on."  
"Okay, Rick. Talk to you tomorrow."

That night, when Kate got home, She gave Alexis a hug, and had a hard time answering their questions.  
Lacey was up in her room, and Alexis was looking through a couple Dr. Seuss books.  
"Mommy? Where is Daddy? Is he coming back anytime soon?" Alexis whimpered.  
"I'm sorry, honey. Daddy and I have been having an argument and I told him that… when he figures it ou, he'll talk to me."  
"When he figures it out? What if he doesn't figure it out? Does Daddy come back then?"  
"I don't know, sweetie. This is something that Mommy and Daddy are trying to work out between us. Daddy did something… and it made me very upset. But I want you to understand that it's nothing about you girls. Mommy and Daddy love you both very much."  
By this point, Joe had headed upstairs and checked in on Lacey. He saw she was awake, but sitting in a corner of the room, one of Rick's photos. She wasn't looking at it, but she was hugging it to her chest. Joe stepped into the room to talk to her.  
"Hey, cutie. You know your Mommy is home. You wanna go talk to her?"  
"Is Daddy here, too?"  
"No, cutie. Just Mommy. You want to go down stairs?"  
"Yes!" And she got up, and ran out of the room. Joe could here her feet going down the stairs.

"Mommy! Are you throwing Daddy away?"  
"Sweetheart? That's not what's happening. I was just telling your sister that Mommy and Daddy are trying to work things out. We're not sure what will happen yet."  
Alexis had a question. "But Mommy, you said he has to figure something out. What does he have to figure out? Can we help him? We want Daddy here!" She said with a sob.  
And Lacey joined in. "Yeah, I wanna help, too!"  
"For now, I don't want you to be worried. Daddy will talk to you when he's ready. We just have to wait. Maybe things will work out."  
"I miss Daddy." Lacey said. "I hope so." Alexis added. They both slowly headed back upstairs to go to bed. This was very strange, because their bedtime wasn't for two more hours. But they had no desire to be downstairs. Instead, they changed into their bed clothes, brushed their teeth, and went to bed.  
"Lexi? Do you think that Daddy will come back?"  
"I want him to, Lace. We need to help him some kind of way."  
"But we don't know where he is to help him. We need to find him!"  
"I know. I'll have to see what we can figger out. And then we'll go and find Daddy, and help him to come back. We can do it together, right?"  
"You bet! We're coming Daddy, don't you worry."  
With a bit of a lighter heart, the girls fell asleep, and mostly dreamt of things they had done with their father. But how could they find him?


	13. Chapter 13

**Thank you Frank and Also chapter 10 is fixed.**

When the next day dawned and it looked like it'd be a nice day, interspersed with clouds. Because of her own internal alarm clock, she had woken up first. She headed for the en-suite first, and when that was all completed, she got herself dressed and headed out into the kitchen for some caffeine that she knew she'd need. She was checking over the paper and sipping her coffee when the girls came downstairs in their pajamas. Even as Kate heard their bedroom door open, she went to get started on making them breakfast. The girls headed straight for their stools near the counter. Kate had orange juice for Alexis, and apple juice for Lacey. Each as they preferred.

"How'd you girls sleep last night? No bad dreams?" Kate asked.

"No, we just had good dreams all night long," Alexis told her. Lacey just nodded, too.

"So I guess your Uncle Joe is going to take you to the park again today, right?"

"I want to go on the slides again. Uncle Joe catches me when I get to the end. Alexis likes the swings a lot, though."

"I'm glad you two are having such fun. Here's your oatmeal. With apples for Lacey, and raisins for you, Alexis. Make sure you eat it all up. Then you can get dressed and watch a little bit of TV while Uncle Joe eats his breakfast." Kate headed for her bedroom to get her badge, phone, purse, and her gun out of the safe. When she came out, she saw Joe coming down the stairs. She waved hello when she saw him, and he waved back.

"Joe? I'm heading out. It's pretty much a normal day. Just give me a call if you have any questions. Just like normal, okay?"

"Got it, Kate. Have a good day at work. I hope you catch that guy."

"Bye, Mommy!" Both of the girls said as she headed out the door.

Joe walked up to the girls. "Okay, so you guys are watching your show for an hour, right? After that, I want to get a head start today, because I have a surprise for you! And after the surprise, we're going to go to the park today, because we have another place to go afterward, okay?"

"Okay." They said back to him, and turned back to their show.

Joe made and ate his breakfast, two Pop-Tarts, and a glass of OJ. He then put a few quick and easy snacks and drinks into his small backpack and went to make sure the house was ready to be left for the morning. Just about an hour later, he came back and got the girls.

"You girls ready to go? Here're your snacks for while we're out. I gave you both a small bag of grapes. I'll have drinks for you later." The girls put them away in their belly packs. Each pack was big enough for a can of soda, but currently held a big handful of grapes instead. Then they left the loft and headed out. They got down to the street, where Joe hailed a cab and they rode off. First, they went to a movie theater with a matinee showing of GARFIELD: THE MOVIE, which both girls just loved. Once that was done, they left and went to the park.

When they got there, the girls saw four or five kids that they knew, and ran over to play with them, while Joe sat down on a bench nearby and watched them play, smiling as he remembered the times long ago when he and Rick had played in the park. Of course, he'd teased Rick so much back then, it's a wonder he even talked to him now, but Rick met Kate, and he had broken the ice between them. Rick saw that Lacey was heading for the circle slide, so he headed over to 'catch' her as she came off. He watched as she slid down, and just before she would have hit her butt on the ground, he picked her up and twirled her around.

"Go back up, Lacey. Do it again!" He told her, and Lacey did just that. 10 more times. She was having a great time. Joe was keeping an eye on Alexis, who was on the swings, talking to a friend he'd seen her with before.

#

Alexis was swinging listlessly while she was talking to her friend Paige, who was in the same class as her.

"Paige? How long ago did your Daddy leave you and your Mommy?"

Paige looked up with a sad look on her face. Alexis had recently talked to her about the topic before, but Paige didn't really like talking about it.

"It was a really long time ago. I wasn't even in Kindergarten. Why do you want to know?"

"I'm worried about my Daddy. I don't want him to go away. He always takes good care of us and he's lots of fun. He loves me very much." Paige looked down at her shoes at that last sentence.

"Well, if he's going to leave you, he'll leave. You can't stop it."

"But I have to! Lacey and I love him!"

"Yeah, but does your Mommy?"

"Uh… I don't know. Lately, there's this other policeman who visits. He even babysat me last week when Uncle Joe had to do some emergency. He's a nice guy, but he's not my Daddy!" Alexis said, with force.

"Well, grown-ups do what they want. They don't have to follow all the rules us kids have. I don't think you can make him."

"Okay. So… when your Daddy left, if you could have done anything in the whole world to stop it, what would you do?"

Paige sat and thought about it for a few minutes.

Finally, she said. "I guess I'd go to my Daddy and tell him that he can't leave, that I love him lots lots, and that he'd make us all very sad if he went away. Then I'd tell my Mommy, that Daddy is so important to us, and we can't ever ever throw him away. That's what I would do."

Alexis grinned widely. "Thanks, Paige. That's just what me and Lacey are gonna do."

#

After Lacey was done with the slides, she headed back to the little climbing building that they had for the kids, and she played with some of the girls and boys that were with her, so he went and sat back down at his bench.

When he got there, he saw another woman there, watching her own kids. She was a bit older than him. Maybe 30. But he focused on Alexis and Lacey.

"You know, you've got a wonderful daughter. How old is she?"

Joe turned to his right. It was the woman sitting near him. "Um, no, actually she's my niece. And the other red-headed one on the swings? She's my other niece. I take care of them during the day when their parents work. They're both 7 years old."

"Well, they're both adorable. Have you been babysitting them for long? You have such a rapport with them." She said with a smile.

"I'm kind of like a full-time babysitter. Their mom is a police officer, and their dad, my brother. He shares the babysitting duty with me. He's a mystery writer, and sometimes he has to go on book tours and other events. I just help them out. They pay me for it, and I even stay with them. It's a nice environment for the girls."

"Wow! Is your brother famous?" She asked.

"Yeah, he really is. But if you'll forgive me, we don't really want to name names with people. Don't want to attract attention to the girls, or their mom, because her job usually requires her to interact with the public, and if they knew who she was, who HE was, it would be difficult, or even dangerous." He replied. Almost feeling like he was lecturing, he'd given that explanation enough times.

"Oh, well I guess I can understand that. You say he's a mystery, writer. I'll have to go looking, see if there are any good books out there." She said to herself.

Joe smirked inwardly. They always wanted to know. Most didn't do anything about it, but it was amazing how money could draw people in.

"Well, thank you for your time. I guess I need to get my little Jerry and head back home. Good day!" She said, as she got up, and headed for a young boy, with blue overalls, and a red Muppets shirt. She picked him up and looked back at Joe. She waved at him and then turned to walk away, with Jerry in her arms.

For the next hour, the girls played together, and with other kids. Joe helped when they needed him and checked his phone occasionally for any messages from Rick or Kate. Eventually, it was almost 3 o'clock. They'd been there for over two hours, and it was time to go. He called the girls over and told them it was time. As always, the girls didn't want to leave their friends. But they got over to him, dusting the sand off themselves.

"Okay, Uncle Joe. We can go, now." Alexis said. Lacey didn't say anything, she just grunted in the affirmative.

"I'll tell you what, instead of going home for lunch, we can stop by at Authentic Nick's for some pizza for lunch. Would you like that?"

"Yeah. That's good, I like Nick." Lacey said. Alexis just nodded.

#

2:57 PM – South-west corner of Central Park

They walked to the exit. When they got there, Joe leaned down to them and told them.

"Okay. So let's head to out of the park, we'll catch a cab, and be eating in just 30 minutes!" Joe said, with excitement in his voice. He headed for the nearest park exit, and the girls trooped along behind him. When they got out of Central Park, they were on the southeast corner. Alexis looked around and saw something that gave her an idea.

"Uncle Joe? Can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure, Alexis. What's that?"

"I know we're going for pizza, but I'd really like a hot dog first. Could you get me a small hotdog from that guy over there? Just a small one?" She looked up at him with her trademark puppy-dog eyes. Joe caved instantly.

"Uh, sure! Okay. Just stay right here. I'll be right back." At just that moment, a bus was pulling up at the corner, heading south. As soon as Joe turned to jog over to the hot-dog vendor, Alexis grabbed Lacey's arm and quietly whispered.

"Come on! We gotta go, NOW!" Both girls ran over, to where the last person riding the bus was about to get onboard. It was a woman with her two kids. Alexis and Lacey just followed them onto the bus and found an empty seat near the front to sit down in. They didn't want to go and sit on the upstairs seats because Alexis wasn't sure exactly where to get off. The bus driver just figured that all four kids were with her, and since she used her MetroCard, he added the half-fare charges to it.

Just as the bus pulled away, Joe thanked the vendor and turned around. The street corner was empty.

#

3:13 PM – The Precinct

Kate and Frank were busy calling various sources to check on the availability of any private owners of surveillance cameras for the areas she was checking for. As soon as she hung up her phone, her cell phone rang. She just picked it up and said. "Beckett."

"Kate, I'm really sorry, I don't know what I did wrong. But I need your help." Kate recognized Joe's voice instantly. She began getting a very bad feeling in her gut.

"Joe? What's going on? What happened?" She asked in her cop voice. When he heard Joe's name, Frank perked up at this.

"Oh God. I am so sorry. I've looked everywhere, but I can't find them!" Joe said, almost yelling by the end.

"Joe!" She said, trying to interrupt him. "Joe, who are you trying to find? The girls? Tell me, what happened? Calm down and tell me what happened." She said, sternly.

Joe took a quick, deep breath. "We were just leaving Central Park. We were going to get dinner. Some pizza, you know?" But Alexis really wanted a hot dog to hold her over. I went to get one for her. Only 20 feet away! I swear! It took only a minute or two. When I turned back, they were gone! I don't know where they are, or where they went. I went down each of the four streets leading from the intersection for a little way. But they weren't anywhere! I don't know what do to! I'm so sorry, Kate. I'm so sorry! I know you hate me. How can I fix this?!" Joe was crying now.

Kate felt her stomach turn into a block of ice. She'd lived in New York for all her life. She was a cop and dealt with the worst of humanity. And all those worst ideas were running through her head right now. But she knew she had to be strong if she was going to find her girls. She hated herself, but she had to be a cop now. She briefly covered her cell phone and turned to Frank. "The girls have gone missing." She said in a low voice. Frank reached a handover, to rest it on her shoulder.

"Joe. I need you to stop. I want you to stop and think. What was happening when you went to get the hotdog? Did you see anyone that looked suspicious? Were there any cars sitting nearby? Maybe with a driver in them, waiting to leave? Just think, and tell me what you saw."

"Uh- uh, there were about a dozen people sitting and standing by a bus stop. There was a car… and also a pickup truck behind it, waiting to go through the light. They were heading south. There was a cab. He was heading… east. Yeah, east. There were a few people just walking buy. Some business types, a lady jogger. No! A lady and a man jogging! But then… then I turned to look at the hotdog guy. I'm so sorry, Kate!"

"Joe. That's good. That's a start. But now we have a tougher job. Think now. When you were with the hot dog vendor. What did you hear? What sounds were there? Are cars driving away? Any car doors slamming? Is it possible you heard someone say something? Think, Joe. Think!"

"Oh, Kate. I am. I'm trying to. Uh. Well, the vendor had a strong Brooklyn accent. There was the sound of a bus stopping. And there was the sound of a fast car peeling out! Could they have taken the girls! Oh, god! I'm such an idiot. I'm so sorry, Kate."

"Joe. Don't get ahead of yourself. Okay, what corner were you at?"

"I'm still there. It's the North West corner of Central Park Street and 5th Avenue. Does that help?"

"It might. What were the girls wearing? I'm going to have to put out an Amber Alert on them. What kind of clothes did they have on?" Kate quickly grabbed a pad of paper and a pen.

"Alexis… She was wearing her dark blue flannel pants, a Power Puff girl red t-shirt, and her light green jacket. Lacey was wearing.. her blue jeans, a blank red t-shirt, and her own dark blue jacket. They each had their belly packs on them, those purple ones. And they were wearing their white sneakers." Joe tried his best to sound hopeful, but he wasn't feeling it, and Kate wasn't either. "Oh! And I asked the hot dog vendor, but he says he didn't see anything he was busy making the dog."

"Alright, Joe. Good job. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to wait at that corner for one hour, just in case the girls might have wandered off, and will come back. Safe and sound, I hope. After that, head for the loft, and wait there to hear from me. I want you to call Rick and tell him, as well. Tell him to call me as soon as he can, and…" Kate paused, not knowing what else she could say. "and just pray. Keep your phone on, too." Kate hung up. She turned to look at Frank. "My girls are gone!" She said quietly. Frank moved his hand from her shoulder to her back, where he started running his thumb back and forth over her spine. "Kate? We'll find them. No matter what. You just gotta have faith." Frank then reached over and gave her a brief hug.

#

3:18 PM – Corner of Central Park Street and 5th Avenue

Joe put the phone away in his upper pocket, so he could be sure of hearing it if it went off. He looked like someone had died. He looked up and down each of the streets leading from the intersection, looking for any indication that there were two small children moving around. And hopefully, not struggling with someone grabbing them.

He then realized what he'd forgotten. He got his phone back out and called his brother. When he answered, Joe said. "Rick? Please don't hate me…"

#

3:20 PM – Back at the precinct…

Kate went straight to Montgomery. She just walked right into his office, even though he was talking to someone.

"Sir? I'm sorry to barge in. I've got a big problem, and I need your help."

Roy had a smile on his face from laughing at something the other man had said. But he could read Kate's body language without any problem.

"What's up, Beckett?" He asked.

"Sir, my brother-in-law was at Central Park, and he seems to have lost my daughters,"

#

3:30 PM – The #5 Bus, southbound

The girls were sitting on the bus, watching the streets go by.

"Alexis? Are you sure about this? How are we going to find Daddy? I don't know where he is."

"That's okay. I remember Daddy saying he was at a place called Cosmo, and that it was downtown. Did you see on the side of the bus? It said '5 Downtown'. It should take us right to him!"

"Okay, but how far do we got to go on the bus?"

"Probably not too much farther. See those bigger buildings up ahead? I think his hotel is around there."

#

3:39 PM – The Precinct

Kate was not in the best of shape. She'd reported all the information to the Captain, and the Amber Alert had been initiated. She saw Esposito come back from the break room.

"Espo, I have a priority job for you. I need you to look into any cameras at the Central Park Street, and 5th Avenue intersection. Timeframe from 10:45 AM to 11:15 AM today. I need you to look and see if anyone picked up two little girls. We need this done yesterday. Can you do that?" Kate asked, her face a mask of stone.

But when Kate had said 'two little girls', and that they normally only did homicides, he asked the obvious question.

"Chica? Are we talking about *your* little girls?"

"Yes. And we need to find them NOW."

"Got it. I'll get onto that, and we'll find out what happened." Espo said as he jogged away to the tech room.

Kate was going over possibilities in her head. She turned to Frank. "Could someone be doing this as retribution for our investigation? Could this be leverage to stop it? Or is this a simple ransom kidnapping?"

Frank just said. "Let's not put the cart before the horse. First we need to find out who picked them up. *Then* we can start with some educated guesses. At least for the moment, think positive. Or, at least, more positive than those thoughts were." He gave her a wan smile, reaching over and squeezing her upper arm.

She had no doubt that all their money was available for the possible kidnappers. She wasn't sure the exact amount, but she knew they have over $60 million, in bank accounts, stocks, bonds, and property. They could pay to get her back. Just then, her cell phone rang. She looked at the caller ID. It was Rick. She answered it.

"Rick. I'm glad you called. I've got an Amber Alert out on the girls. Joe is still at the corner, waiting to see if a miracle happens, and they show up. I don't know much else right now." She said quickly.

"Is there a possibility they were kidnaped? We've got the money. You know it, too."

"I haven't heard anything. If it's a kidnapping, there have been no calls made, but it's only been about 30 or 40 minutes ago. I've got Esposito looking into street cameras to see if he can find out what happened to the girls, or if someone grabbed them. It'll probably take him another 30 to 60 minutes. Until he has any results Right now, we're doing the hard part. Waiting." Frank reached over to the hand that wasn't holding the phone, and lightly grasped her wrist, stroking his thumb over her upper wrist.

"Okay, right. What can I do to help? Should I come in? I'm still at the hotel right now. Should we call the FBI? I know they handle child abduction cases. I know a guy, or rather, a girl, in this case, who could help."

"No. As much as there is a chance we might need them, I'd like to get some evidence first. Stay where you're at. I'll have you come in, or else go to the loft, depending on what turns up. I'm sure we'll have a lot of people here willing to help. They've seen the girls couple times, and they all love them."

Rick's eyes got a little green. "Is Mr. Square Jaw going to help you, too?" He snarled.

"Who?" Kate paused, as she realized just who it was that he meant. "You mean Daniels? Yeah, he'll probably help too. Why?"

"Well, all I'll say is that, as much as I want all the help we can get, I can't help but wish he wasn't around," Rick said.

"Well, he is," Kate said, looking over at Frank, giving him a small smile. "And like you said, I'll take all the help we can get. Listen, I got to check a few things out, see if there are any other motivations here. I'll give you a call back in 15 or 20 minutes. Okay?"

"All right. I'll be here. I have a guy or two that might be able to help. I'll be waiting to here from you." Rick hung up.

#

3:51 PM – The #5 bus southbound

"Is it time to get off yet, Alexis?"

"I think so. We can sit over in that park, first. So we can figure out where to go to for that Cosmo place." Fortunately for the girls, another passenger had signaled to get off, and without knowing it, they'd gotten off near the southerly end of City Hall park, on Broadway and Vesey Street. Alexis and Lacey followed behind the lady who got off. They went over and stood near a building on the side of the street. They were about four blocks south of Chambers St.

"Okay, let's not cross the street to that park. All those cars could hit us. I'm not sure exactly, but I'm hoping we are getting near. Let's see if there are any signs around that say the Cosmo name. Maybe that would help."

They looked around, but there were no signs that said Cosmo, or Hotel, so they started walking west, down Vesey. There were some people around, but most were heading north and south. One gentleman was leaning up against the wall, with a briefcase open in front of him, with what looked to be mostly watched inside of it.

"There sure are a lot of people around here, Alexis," Lacey said. "I don't see it along this street. Should we run down to the other end?"

"Yeah, let's go down to the next street and look around there." Alexis agreed.

#

4:15 PM – Cosmopolitan Hotel Lobby

Rick has been pacing back and forth. He's very nervous and fidgety. Then his cell phone rings.

"Richard Castle," He says, sharply.

"It's me, Rick," Kate said. "Just updating you. We haven't heard anything yet if there are any kidnappers. Have you?"

"No, I even forwarded my room phone to this cell phone, so I don't miss any calls. Has Espo found anything yet?"

"Not yet. He only got an authority to start looking 15 minutes ago. He's scanning thru all the cameras at that intersection, to see if they can see the girls, and to find out if anyone took them."

Just then, Beckett heard a whoop. Apparently, so could Rick.

"Kate, what was that sound? What happened?"

"I don't know. Let me go over and find out." She headed into the tech room, where Espo had yelled.

"Check it out, Beckett. They may still be missing, but I don't think it's a kidnapping."

"How do you know? How can you be sure?" Kate put her cell phone on speaker because Rick was asking so many questions.

"…happening? Kate? What's going on?" Rick said, his voice tinny, over the phone.

"Look at this, Beckett," Espo said.

"Just a second, Rick," Kate said, and then watched the camera feed.

"Okay, this is the northbound camera on the west side of the street. Right here, at about 3:03, a southbound number 5 bus stopped at that corner. You can see people getting on… And right there, you see that?" Espo said, with a bit of hope.

#

"Kate! What do you see?" Rick said, over the phone.

"Rick, the girls simply ran up behind a lady with two little boys. They just followed her onboard the bus. I don't see that anyone grabbed them; they don't seem to be coerced, or even anyone calling to them or tempting them to get on. It doesn't look like a kidnapping. But why did they do that? Where are they heading for?" Kate wondered.

"Espo?" Rick called out. "Can you find out what bus it is? Maybe call the driver and see if they are still on the bus? Or at worst, can you use more cameras to see where they got off?" He asked, almost pleading.

"Can do, Rick. Hang on, I have to call the bus company. Just a sec." He did a quick search through his own sources and then dialed in the phone number. After a slight pause, he said. "This is Detective Esposito, Badge number 7049. I need to talk to your supervisor, immediately." There was a slight pause. Then… "Yes, Ma'am. That is correct. I am a Detective for the NYPD. I need to communicate with one of your bus drivers. We think there may be two young girls onboard the bus, and they need to be brought back in. This is a missing child situation. Can you help me." There was another slight pause. "Ma'am, the bus was for your route number 5, bus # 5-105." He paused again. "Thank you, Ma'am. I'll hold." He turned to Beckett, and her phone. "Right now, she's getting on the radio for the operator. She is going to instruct the driver to pull the bus over, and call me. I will talk him through what the girls look like and what they are wearing. Do you have a copy of the Amber Alert?" Kate handed it to him. Just then, the woman came back on the line. "Yes, Ma'am. I'm here. My phone number is 212-555-8411. Please have him call that ASAP. Thank you." Espo hung up. "This should only be a minute or two." He told Kate.

Just then, his phone rang. "Detective Esposito." He answered. "Yes, sir. We are trying to find two 6-year old Caucasian girls, one is a redhead, and the other is brown-haired." Kate whispered to him: "7!". Espo continued. "Oh, sorry. They are 7-years old. They are wearing blue pants, red shirts, and one has a green jacket, the other has a blue jacket. Could you please look at the passengers and see if they are aboard, or if anyone saw them when they got off." He asked the driver.

After a slight pause, Espo said. "Yes, sir. I'll h old." He turned to Kate. "He's looking, and if necessary, he'll ask for anyone who might have seen them. Maybe where they got off, if we're lucky."

Kate nodded her head. "Let's hope that they are still on the bus. That would make my heart just jump for joy!" When Rick heard that, he said. "Mine, too." Frank just lightly rubbed Kate's back.

Finally, after about 5 minutes, the driver came back on the line. "Detective? I'm sorry to say that they are not aboard. And the stop my manager told me they got on? I was southbound at that point. But I've since hit the bus terminal, and I've turned around and am heading north now. I have a whole new load of people. But come to think of it, I do recall those girls getting on. The problem is, I have other things going on, and I don't know where they got off, although I can be sure that they must have gotten off before I got to the bus terminal. I'm sorry I couldn't be any more help. Can I move on now?"

Esposito had had his cell on speakerphone. He replied. "Thank you, sir. Yes, you can be on your way now. Thank you again." And Espo hung up the phone.

Rick was the first to speak. "So we know they got on at Central Park and 5th. Can you check the cameras for their route, and see if you can find where the girls got off? Please?"

"Absolutely. That's a lot of cameras to check, so this isn't going to be a quick process. 5th Avenue goes south to 8th Street, then heads west to Broadway, and then south, and heads down till it gets to the bus terminal."

"Okay. Well, I'm already down here on Chambers and West Broadway. I'll walk over to Broadway and start walking up from there unless you tell me to head south. Will that work for you guys?"

Kate picked the phone up to her ear, taking it off speakerphone. "Rick, you go and do that. I'm going to go to where the bus picked them up and follow the route down towards you. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Alright, Kate. Talk to you soon." And he hung up.

Kate turned to Frank and said. "Yeah, you want to ride with me? Three heads are better than two." Kate turned to Espo. "You check out the camera tapes, as fast as you can. If you get any point where you can see where they got off, you call right away, okay?"

"Got it, Beckett." And Espo turned from them, to concentrate on the feeds from street cameras.

Kate then turned, and headed out the door. She went to her desk, grabbed her brown leather jacket, and she and Frank walked out.

#

4:25 PM – Corner of Central Park Street and 5th Avenue

It had been just over an hour now. Joe hadn't wandered very far from his corner. Anytime he saw what looked like a little kid, he watched most closely. None of them were the girls. By this point, he hung his head. He'd lost his dear, sweet nieces. He didn't know if someone had taken them, or if they'd gotten lost. All he knew was that he'd failed. He decided right then and there, that when he got home, he'd pack up his belongings. Then, when he next saw Kate or Rick, he'd tell them he was moving out. He was not a responsible babysitter. Or a responsible Uncle, for that matter. He was just a failure. He walked up to the curb, and hailed a cab back to the loft, riding all the way in silence.

#

4:55 PM – Cosmopolitan Hotel Lobby

As soon as he hung up the phone, Rick left the hotel and headed east on Chambers Street. It was only a block to Broadway, and he made that in less than five minutes. When he got there, he looked south, to see if there was any sign of the girls, but he didn't see anything. He turned and headed north, looking on both sides of the street. He saw a few people who had their own vendor stands, for food, trinkets, and other stuff. He asked each of them if they'd seen the girls. He even showed them pictures from his phone. No one had seen them. As he walked, he passed the Federal building on his right side, which was two blocks long. He was grateful that, so far, they didn't need to bring them into this. He just had to keep hoping.

He kept walking, moving back and forth on each side of the street. Four blocks, five blocks, six, seven, eight. No one could remember seeing any little girls that looked like that. He was getting worried. The girls had over a two-hour head start. Where would they have gone to? He decided to go south, on the offhand chance that they'd gone farther into downtown. He jogged for a few blocks, walked for a minute, jogged again. Finally, he got back to Chambers, and started south, asking anyone he saw.

#

4:55 – Leaving 12th Precinct

"I really appreciate the extra set of eyes, Frank. I just hope we find them soon before some sicko comes across them and tries something. New York is a great city, with a lot of good people, but there are still low-life's.."

"It's not a problem, Kate. I am *happy* to help. Do you have any idea why this might have happened? Is Rick responsible? Is Joe? They are brothers, right?" He asked, a bit strongly, patting her knee.

Kate didn't even hesitate. "No. He loves those girls, just like I do. They are our pride and joy. And Joe? From what I saw, I think it was Alexis. She decided to do this. You could see her towing Lacey along behind her. They got the last person with their kids, and they just walked on the bus. I'll probably have to buy handcuffs for Joe to chain the girls to him, but I do not believe he was aware of this. I've known him almost half my life. The question is: What is Alexis trying to do? Where is she trying to go? That's the part I don't understand."

"Would Rick try to take the girls? If you two broke up?" He squeezed her knee. Kate was oblivious, with her worry.

"I don't think so. He knows they love me. He knows they love him, too. But… the topic hasn't really come up."

Daniels didn't have a response to that. They were silent until they got to the intersection near Central Park.

#

5:17 PM – Walking south on Church Street, below Vesey Street

"Alexis? I don't see any Cosmo place around here. Look at that over there." She pointed west, to her right. "It looks like they took away a big building. Where is Daddy at? What's the best way to go?"

So far, they'd been walking along, and because of all the people going by, they'd been pretty much ignored, so far. Everyone else needing to get somewhere right away, and because the girls stayed up against the buildings, they were pretty much out of the way of pedestrians.

"I think this isn't the way. Let's turn around, and go back the other way."

"Okay. I'm getting kinda hungry. Can we find a good place to stop soon? It's a long way to Daddy." Lacey asked.

Alexis nodded. For now, they began retraced their steps back to Broadway, by first heading for Barclay St.

#

5:20 PM – Walking south on Broadway, crossing Barclay St

Rick had made pretty good time getting back south. He was looking for anyone who was stationed in the area, just like before. T-shirt vendors, food vendors. It wasn't until he got to Vesey St, that he finally got a hit. He saw a jewelry, salesman. He had a small briefcase open for people to see as they walked by. He saw Rick, and at first, he tried to make and offer for "fine valuable watches". Until, that is, that he saw the look on Rick's face. It was not a happy look, and at first he thought he was faced with a cop. He quickly snapped his briefcase shut, and tried, nonchalantly, to stroll away. Rick still made for him and grabbed him by his upper arm.

The man was a bit startled. He stuttered out. "H- Hey! What's the problem? I got all my sellers licenses. You got no cause to hassle me!"

Rick removed his hand. "Whoa, I'm not here to make problems. I just wanted to ask you a question. Have you seen two little girls in the last hour or two? One would have red hair, and the other with brown. They'd probably be by themselves. Have you seen them around?"

The man looked suspicious but slightly offended. "Sir! I'll have you know that I am a well-traveled man about town. I am aware of *many* people in this town, and I usually have a pretty good memory. But you must understand, I am a business, man. I'm sure that a discerning gentleman like yourself can understand that. Would it be worth my while if I can help you?"

Rick quickly reached into his pocket and brought out a hundred dollar bill. "Would this help stimulate your memory?" Rick held the bill between his two hands.

Rick pulled that large of an amount out so quickly, that the man thought he could probably get more out of Rick.

"Why, I think it might help. Let me think. Two little girls, walking along by themselves. No school in sight. Well, I'm not sure if I can really remember if I saw any girls in blue or a green jackets. Can you assist my memory anymore?" He said with a slight leer.

Rick, however, could see the writing on the wall. He quickly reached over and re-grabbed the man's upper arm securely. "Well, what if we just walk over to One Police Plaza. It's only a quarter of a mile away. Do you think that they'd like to see what you have in your briefcase?"

"Uh, well, now that you mention it, I did see them, and they headed right down Vesey Street. I remember one of them mentioned the others name; Alex, or Lexus, I'm not sure. Shortly after they turned onto the street, I saw them start to run down it. After that, they were out of sight, out of mind."

"Well, I thank you for your time sir, and for that… here is your payment." Rick then reached into his pocket, pulled out a $20, and gave him that, instead of the $100. Rick then walked away, cell phone to his ear.

#

5:35 PM – 5th Avenue and 8th Street

Kate's cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket. "Beckett." She snapped out.

"Kate, it's Rick. I think the girls are down around here. I've just left Broadway, and I'm heading down Vesey Street. Can you get down here? How far away are you?"

"We've just about to turn south onto Broadway from 8th. I'm guessing in about 15 minutes. Where will you be?"

"Don't use Broadway. It's a nightmare today. Go a block further east to Lafayette, and take that down. You'll make it in 10 minutes, maybe less. I'm going to be at Vesey and Church St. I'll see you then."

Kate turned off her turn signal and went thru the intersection. She went another block and turned right onto Lafayette. She then thought about it for a split second, and turned on her lights a siren, and headed for where Castle was.

#

5:41 PM – Intersection of Barclay and Broadway

The girls came and saw that there was a park across the street. They both were feeling tired, so they decided to go over then and sit down. Fortunately, there were quite a few pedestrians waiting to cross, so when they went, the girls went right along with them. They then went into the southern end of City Hall Park. As they entered, they saw a beautiful fountain, so they ran over to it and sat down near it. Then, they each opened their belly packs and got their grapes out.

"I'm glad I didn't eat these when we were at the park with Uncle Joe. I'd be really hungry now." Lacey commented.

"Yeah, Uncle Joe always tries to think of us, all the time. Last year for our birthday? Do you remember what he gave us?"

"You bet! He gave us each unlimited horseback rides until we get to high school. And that won't be until forever! He's a great horsey."

After the girls ate all their grapes, they saw that there was a nice kid's play set. It wasn't much, but it had a big tunnel to crawl through. Both girls went over to it, crawled in, and rested. Lacey actually fell asleep. Alexis, on the other hand, wondered where they should look next for their Daddy. But soon, her eyes started falling closed. They both had played in the park for quite a while, and all the hiking they'd done around the streets had tried them both out. Just before she fell asleep, she saw a police car with it's lights flashing go by the intersection they'd walked through a few minutes ago.

#

5:43 PM – Intersection of Barclay and Broadway

Kate was near. She went one block further south, and turned right onto Vesey. She drove to the end of the next block and saw Rick standing on the corner, talking to a woman with five dogs. He walked over to Kate's car, on the drivers side. He saw Daniels in the car with Kate. Daniels had a smirk on his face, as he moved his left arm up to learn his forearm on Kate's seat-back, and rested his hand on her shoulder. Rick grimaced.

"I was just talking to that lady. She says she saw the girls about 15-20 minutes ago. They were walking up Church St while she was going down. She says they were looking around a lot like they were either lost or trying to find something."

"Okay, we'll drive up and down the streets around here, in a grid pattern. We'll keep an eye out if we see them. If you would, could you keep asking people? Maybe we'll find someone. It's going to be getting to be dusk in about two hours, and things will be so much harder then."

"Got it. I'll call if I find anything. Good luck, Kate." Rick looked over at Daniels for a split-second but didn't say anything. Instead, he turned away and walked north.

The car drove away slowly, as Kate and Frank looked for the girls. Rick started walking up Church St, asking anyone he could. They had to find the girls. They just had to. And they had to do it before night fell.


	14. Chapter 14

**I come in peace is all I'm going to say after this chapter.**

 **Just stick with me for like three or two chapters and BAM happy ending. Then we can move on to my story which will be more on Joe Ricks brother.**

6:03 PM – Driving in the car

Kate and Frank had gone down their sixth street, when Espo called them.

"Hey, Espo. Did you find something?" Kate asked.

"Yeah. I found the camera showing them turning onto Vesey, and then another camera at the other end, I saw them turning onto Church. They went south, but I didn't pick them up on any further cams. I wonder if they might have turned back around again? There were whole bunches of construction workers from the World Trade Center site. They went through that intersection, and if the girls were there, I couldn't see them. They are kind of short." He told her.

Okay, Espo. Thanks. We'll check out northern streets. I know that Rick is already walking those streets, asking if anyone saw them. Maybe we'll get a hit. Thanks, Javi."

Frank rested a hand on her right shoulder, and grasped her right hand. "See? We're getting close. We will find them." He said, with a warm smile on his face.

Kate smiled briefly at him while grabbing her cell phone and calling Rick. "Hey, Rick? Where are you at currently?"

He answered almost immediately. "I'm just a block south of Chambers Street. I had gone up there, and was working my way south. That's three blocks north of where you left me. Why? Did you find them?"

"No, not yet. Espo called and said he never saw any trace of the girls going south of Vesey, so I think you're going okay, but I think we're going to go out on foot. We can see more that way, and even though it'll be slower, we might see something of them that we might otherwise miss."

"Alright. Talk to you soon."

They drove to head for a meet up with Rick. During the short trip, Daniels was trying to think of a way to show up Rick. He realized that if he was the one to find the girls, then it might get him a nice reaction from Kate and if Rick could see the reaction, it'll be that much better. He'd never known a woman like Kate, and he'd gotten to know her pretty well in the last four weeks. If their marriage was going to break up, why couldn't he be there to pick up the pieces? And if he could somehow help the breakup… even better.

Kate drove down the street to where Rick was. She parked the car, and they both got out. Kate left her lights flashing, and locked her car. Then they all walked around the corner for Broadway.

Rick had been doing a lot of running and walking, and not riding in a car. Still, he kept up with Kate, as the three of them walked down the sidewalk on the west side of Broadway.

Kate was just in front, Rick was on the left, and Daniels was on the right, by the buildings.

Rick purposely slowed down a slight bit. Daniels slowed as well, to match. Rick turned to look at him, and quietly asked. "Why are you here? They aren't your kids. You're just here to get in her pants, aren't you?"

Daniels looked back at him, and put a confident smile on his face. "Hey, I'm not the one who's sleeping around with another woman, and making a video of it. Face it buddy, you've lost her." Daniels walked faster to catch up with Kate.

Rick followed suit. All he could do was scrunch up his hands to refrain from strangling him and mutter under his breath "It wasn't even me! It was somebody else."

The next street south was Murray. They walked west down the street, Rick on one side, Kate on the other. Daniels stuck to Kate's side, usually attempting and failing to hold her hand. Rick noticed once, as Daniels was talking to her, he had a hand at the small of her back, almost caressing it. He felt very jealous of that. But he had bigger fish to fry. He had to find their daughters.

They searched for every door that could open, and looked inside. No luck. They saw a guy driving a street cleaner. Rick asked him if he'd seen the girls but that was no use either.

They had just gotten about halfway down Park Place, when Kate's cell phone rang again.

"Beckett." It was Esposito calling.

"Kate, I found something that might help narrow things down. I scanned back on Broadway. At 5:41, the girls crossed the street. They were on Barclay Street, going east, across to the southern part of City Hall Park. I think you should search the park."

"Thanks, Espo. I hope you're right. We're heading there right now." Kate hung up the phone. "Espo found a camera that saw the girls cross Broadway, from Barclay."

Rick interjected. "That's the next street south of us. The only thing on the other side of the street is the park. Let's go!" Rick was running as fast as he could, with Kate at his heels, and Daniels bringing up the rear.

As they approached Broadway, Rick yelled, "You go down, and cross at the light, and I'll cross here. We can search the park from either end and meet in the middle!"

Meanwhile, Kate and Frank headed south for the crosswalk, and the southern end of the park.

As soon as Rick had crossed the street, he saw many trees ahead of him. There was park to the right, park to the left, and park straight ahead. He decided to start with the left and move to the right. He worked his way down along the near side of the park, until he met Frank and Kate.

Rick composed himself. Catching his breath. "So I assume nothing yet?"

"Don't worry, I'll find them." Frank said, smirking with a glint in his eye as he gazed towards Kate.

Rick ignored his comment, turning away and continued searching in an easterly direction. He didn't see any kids that were all by themselves. There were a of couple little boys, one little girl, but not his girls.

"Okay. I'm a little kid. I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I'm in a strange place. Where would I go? Where would I go?" He thought to himself. He looked around the eastern side of the park. Fortunately, it wasn't too wide, and he could see from one side of it to the other, with only a little difficulty. There! Over near a cluster of trees it looked like there was a kids play set behind it. They'd have to be there.

Before he made his way over to it, he searched for Frank, making sure he wasn't anywhere nearby. Good, he and Kate were headed for a bunch of kids over by some teeter-totters and swings.

Rick took a chance, and ran for the play set. He got there, and found that there was a small room at the base, under a short kiddie slide. But there was no one there. Then, he saw a fountain nearby, and he knew the girls liked fountains. They liked to sit and listen to the calming sound of the rushing water. They'd always ask Rick or Kate for coins to throw in. Rick walked over to it and sat on the edge. Looking around, he could see Frank talking with some kids now, and further south, Kate was ambling through the trees.

But then he looked near where he was, and he now saw two big brown-colored pipe tubes they have for kids to climb through. Because of their color, he hadn't noticed them until he was within 40 or 50 feet.

He ran over to the first one desperately crawling around, looking inside but all he found was an empty candy wrapper. He looked up, hoping upon hope they were here and that was when he saw them; Rick felt tears streaming down his face, as his two daughters came into focus, sleeping peacefully, snuggled up to one another. "Alexis? Lacey? Wake up, sweeties. Daddy's here."

The girls roused from their nap. "Come on, sleepy heads. Time to get up!" Rick pulled out his phone and sent a text direct to Kate. I found them. They are in a play pipe on the northeastern edge of the park. They are okay.

When the girls looked up and saw him putting his phone away, they screamed with delight, "Daddy! Daddy! You're here!" As they both came out to him. Rick was hugging the girls with all his might, and giving them kisses all over their faces. He picked up both girls, and started toward where he'd seen Kate. In less than a minute, he saw her running towards him.

When Kate got to them, Rick let the girls run to her. She gave him a grateful smile. "Thank God you found them. Thank God." He was beaming at all three of his girls. They were all back together, and tomorrow, this nightmare would finally end.

Kate was hugging, and crying, and laughing. The girls were telling her they had been trying to find Daddy, to make sure they didn't lose him.

When Frank jogs up, Kate turns to him, and shows him the girls. Frank walks over closely, and kisses the girls on their heads, welcoming them back. Rick sees this, and he feels even less like a real father. The girls obviously wanted Frank as their Daddy, not just him. He's about to turn away, when he hears Kate speak.

"Thanks, Frank. I really appreciate all your help today."

Kate put her hand out for Frank to shake. But he looks over and sees Rick starting at them. Already frustrated Rick was able to find them before him, he decides to give him some payback. He takes Kate's hand, but instead of shaking it, he pulls her closer, attempting to kiss her. Which he had succeed at cause by the time Rick turned around his heart broke for the hundredth time.

#

That night, after having drank all the scotch in the small bar of his room, he recalls the planned events of the day.

Gerald Mannon was supposed to check in for their event tomorrow. So after he un-forwards the calls on the hotel room phone, he then calls the front desk, to ask if Mr. Mannon has checked in yet, since it was Rick who had set up the reservation. They tell him that, yes, Mr. Mannon had checked in around 4 PM, but he checked out at 4:30. The Tuxedo Rick had arranged for him was left behind in the room, so they are holding it for him.

The Front Desk receptionist indicates a call came in for Mr. Mannon's room, around 4:20pm, and according to their records, it lasted for about 5 minutes.

Upon hearing this, he is hit was a massive blow of despair. His one chance of proving himself just vanished off the face of the earth. Now what was he going to do?

He doesn't have much hope anymore, so he heads downstairs to the hotel bar. He sits near the back, in a corner, and orders scotch after scotch. He bills them to his room.

Finally, after about 10 of them, they refuse him service, since he'd been slamming them back one after another. Actually, they had slowed him down earlier. The last two or three were watered down to half strength. The bartenders are talking over what to do with Rick.

A woman steps up and says. "He's a good friend of mine. We went to high school together. I can get him up to his room. He'll be alright."

"Thanks, miss. Call us if you have any problems with him."

She nodded, and one of Rick's arms over her shoulder, she helps him stagger out of the bar, through the lobby, and to the elevator up to his room. The woman reaches into Rick's pocked to find his room keycard.

As they ride up the elevator, she says. "Hmm, room 603. Must be a nice view from up there, Rick." Finally, the elevator door opened onto the sixth floor. She guided his stagger to his room, and she unlocked and opened his door, and helped him to the bedroom.

Although she tried to gracefully let him down onto the bed, his weight was a bit too much for her when he overbalanced. Rick flopped onto the bed.

The woman knelt on the floor and removed Rick's shoes. Then she moved up to him, and kissed his cheek. "Rick? Can you hear me? It's Megan. You remember right, from school? You wanna cuddle? Like we did that one time in the theater?" She spoke woefully.

She stayed kneeling on the floor, and leaned across his torso, so that she could hug him a bit. "Rick? You remember me, right? It's Megan?"

Rick finally said spoke with a slur. "Kate? Is that you? Please gimme a kiss? I miss you…" He trailed off, and his eyes closed.

Megan sat on her haunches. "Oh, Rick. I so wish…" She then leaned forward, and with much regret, she gave him a brief kiss on his cheek.

The next morning, there was a pounding on the front door. Rick was still out cold. Megan heard it and got up, still in her disheveled clothes. She shuffled to the door, only to be met by Kate.

"Hey, Becks. How's it going?"

At first, Kate didn't recognize the woman. But she hadn't been called 'Becks' since High School, so she racked her brain. "Morg… Megan? What are you doing here? In Rick's room?"

"He was really, really drunk last night. I helped him up here, and I stayed last night to make sure he was okay. Why?"

Kate felt the jealously roll in her stomach, a storm brewing inside of her, emotions running haywire. But was the battle worth it? Does Rick even want her to fight for him?

"Ah, you know what, never mind. It's okay, I think I've seen enough."

Kate turned and walked away, head down, her mind swimming with depressing thoughts. At least she still had the girls. And at least Rick had found them. He obviously still cared for them. He was always a good father. But was he still a good husband? It didn't appear that way. Maybe someone like Frank is the only option left?

#

About an hour after Kate left, Rick woke up. He was very groggy, and had a massive hangover, as well as a headache. She went to the bathroom and found there was some extra-strength aspirin there. She got him a glass of water, and two tablets, and brought them over to Rick. His eyes didn't seem to want to open.

"Kate? Is that you?" He asked.

"No, Rick. It's me, Megan. Remember? From school? Here, sit up. I got you some aspirin, and water. Take them, and drink it. You'll feel better." Rick slowly sat up, on the side of the bed.

With unsteady hands, he took the pills, put them in his mouth, and with two hands, he held the glass, and drank all of it.

After a pause, he looked to her in question. "Megan? What are you doing here? Did I invite you up to my room?" Suddenly, he dreaded the possible answer.

"No, Rick. I just stayed here, and we snuggled all night long. You were really very drunk. Not as much fun as you used to be, from what I can recall."

"Uh, well, thanks… I guess. Sorry about all that." He's still so confused as to how she found him, why she even bothered. Unless she still had feelings for him?

"That's okay. You want me to stay around here? I can, if you want. We could always snuggle some more." She said, with a teasing grin.

"No, not really." Geez no. If Kate saw them together, what help will that be to his current situation? "Thanks anyways."

"Okay, Rick. I got it. Well, it was nice to see you again. It's been a while. See you next time." She said, disappointedly. She rose and left his room without a backward glance, heading straight out to her next 'client'.

#

Meanwhile, back at the loft, Kate, with Frank's help, took the girls and sat them down at the dinner table. She got some leftovers out and heated it up for them.

Kate made them some lasagna, which was very filling, and gave them one glass of their favorite juice each, and as much water as they wanted after that. But when Kate was about to serve them, she told them. "What do you say to your poor Uncle Joe? He was trying to take care of you, and look at what you did to him. He won't even come down for dinner."

Both girls hung their heads. "I'm sorry, Mommy." Alexis and Lacey spoke in tandem.

"Well, you should be. When your Uncle called me, we put out an alert about you to let people know you were missing, and all the police all over the city were looking for you! Look at how much trouble you have caused everybody." Her voice started to rise.

She calms herself down before continuing to talk again. "I'm so happy you were okay when your Daddy found you, but don't ever do that again! The next time, you could get hurt... or worse!"

Alexis just had to ask. "What's worse then being hurt, Mommy?"

Kate was about to answer her, until she realized the age of the person who asked. So, she said. "Well, it would be a lot worse, and Mommy and Daddy might never see you again. Do you want that to happen?"

Both girls shook their heads and spoke a long drawn out, "No."

This led Frank to grasp Kate's hand in both of his, and say. "So don't do it again. Little girls who do that kind of thing get punished for that. And it's not just no dessert after dinner. So be careful, and always listen to what your Mommy, or Uncle Joe tell you. Alright?"

The girls both said "Yeah." And even Kate could tell there wasn't much agreement from the girls. She just let it go for the time being. But she did add.

"Girls? I want you to go to Uncle Joe tomorrow morning, and apologize to him. If he isn't smiling when you're done, you didn't do it right. Got it?"

"Yes, Mommy." The two girls said to her.

Frank was sitting there, next to Kate, as they ate. He reached over, and squeezed her hand with his, as he smiled at her. All the while, he was thinking 'If Rick got married to her before he started writing, like I've been told, then she probably doesn't have any kind of prenup on the books. That means that if they get divorced, she'll get half of everything. And that means that if I marry her, I'll get half of that. I'll be living on easy street from then on!'

Kate looked back at him, and gave him a half-way smile, but didn't squeeze hands back.

When the girls leave the table, to go take a bath and change into bad clothes, Frank asks Kate.

"So have you put in your divorce papers yet?" This is actually a loaded question, because he has a friend in the city legal office, and he knows she hasn't done it yet.

"Yes, I filed it last week, when Rick's tape came out. All that remains is for him to sign and return it." Kate says, half-heartedly.

"Okay, that's good. As long as the problems he's causing you are stopped by his permanent absence, that's good to hear. You deserve so much better Kate. Not some kind of playboy that doesn't take care of you. At least he had enough feeling for the girls to do right by them one last time."

"Yeah, I guess." Kate paused, and found her breath again. "Listen, I need to get the girls ready for bed, and give them a bath. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" She said, looking up at him, with absolutely no promise in her eyes.

"No, that's not a problem. Hey, if you'd like, I can stay here tonight, with you. Or even in a guest room, if you want. I don't want you to be alone. And if you worry, or need anything, I can be here for you…"

"That's okay. I'll be all right. It's a secure building, and I have pretty much anything I need right here." Except for my husband. She thought to herself.

"Okay, so I'll see you tomorrow, Frank. Take care, and thanks for helping today."

Frank smiled at her, and leant in to give her a kiss goodbye, but Kate leans back a bit and to the side, so he alters his plan, and quickly leans in and kisses her on the cheek.

"Night, Kate. Good night." And he walked to the door, opened it, stepped through, and looked back at her. But he's disappointed to find that she's turned away and is heading up the stairs. He closed the door, thinking 'Someday. Someday soon' and walked solemnly away.

Chapter 14, part 3

She was in the middle of her morning routine when she heard the bedroom door of the girls' room open, and little feet flying down the stairs.

Alexis was in the lead, and when she came over to the counter, she spoke jovially. "Mommy! Can we go see Daddy, today?"

"Yeah, Mommy. I want to see Daddy, too!" Lacey said, backing up her sister.

"Um, well, Daddy isn't here right now. I suppose I'll need to work out a time for that." She answered them.

"Mommy? Why isn't Daddy home right now?" Lacey wondered.

"Daddy and I are trying to work things out, and during that time, he's staying at a hotel nearby."

"That Cosmo place?" Alexis asked.

"Yes. The Cosmopolitan Hotel. That's right."

"I know we did a bad thing yesterday, by running away on Uncle Joe, but that's why we did it. Daddy has been gone for so long, and now that he's back, and you don't let him stay here. How can we have fun with Daddy?" Alexis said.

"Okay, I have an idea about that. I'll call Daddy around lunch-time, and see if he thinks my idea is a good one. If he does, I'll tell you my idea, and we can try it out. Alright?"

"O-okay." Alexis draws out. "Come on, Lace. Lets get some breakfast. I'm hungry."

Lacey followed her up to their stools at the counter. Kate took this intent as a good sign for changing the subject. She had their food already laid out for them, and their juice poured.

Later that morning, Rick finally crawled out of bed. He felt like crap, and his mouth tasted like a hazardous waste site. He had a glass of water, brushed his teeth, and ordered a pot of coffee, steak and scrambled eggs, and orange juice. He'd learned long ago from his brother Joe, that after a hang over, you had to drink a lot of fluids, and eat a good meal. When it got to be 11 AM, he called his friend David in Vegas.

"Hello?" David said.

"Hey there, Dave. It's Rick. I'm calling to find out if you've heard from Gerald Mannon at all, today?" Rick queried.

"Yeah, I did. Gerald called last night, to ask if anyone out here needed his talents. Based on what you wanted him for, I told him that there wasn't anyone looking to hire him. When I asked why, he said he was worried about doing this job in New York. He says he thought he was going to get arrested, or shot, or something. What happened up there?"

"I don't know exactly, but apparently someone called him last night a little past 4, and told him he was going to be arrested. He then checked out only half an hour after he checked in. I don't know where he is, at the moment."

"Wow! Who'd do that?" David asked, confused.

"I don't know. But until I find him, and convince him I'm not going to have him arrested, my only other hope is the legal angle I have with my lawyer. I sure hope that works out."

"I hope so, for you. What should I do if Gerald calls back?"

"If you can, please try to convince him he is not going to be arrested. Give him my number and have him call me if needed. Of course, if I have to talk him into showing up, it'll only be to simply show Kate, and have him tell her it was him in the video, not me. It's not as dramatic as my mom would do it, but if it works, it works. If you can, please try to call him and convince him. Ask him what assurances he'd want. I'll try to work it out for him."

"Okay, Rick. Give me some time today, and I'll see what I can arrange. Keep your fingers crossed." David said, right before he hung up.

Rick then called his lawyer. "Ron? How's thinks going on the legal side of things for us?"

"Not too bad, Rick. We got a judge to approve the injunction against their website for selling copies, or letting people watch it online. We were able to have them block the site for any person accessing the site in America. That should cut back a lot on people stumbling across it. Additionally, we served them with papers back on Tuesday, telling them about the injunction, and that we want to discuss this. If they don't respond within seven days, we can have the Mexican government freeze their assets, so we should here from them soon."

"That's good to hear. All I'm asking is that they admit that they did not film me in the movie, and they used my likeness without permission. Ideally, I'd also like to know who decided to do this, and have them properly label the movie as fiction, or any other way you can phrase it so that there is no doubt in the public's eye that it isn't me in that video. Hopefully that will be enough. I can lose my fans, but I can't afford to lose my wife. Or my kids."

"I think we can work with that. This would probably be a bit quicker if they were an American company, but we are on pretty good terms with Mexico. They don't want themselves thought of badly, just like we don't either. I'll let you know how things go, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks, Ron. Bye."

#

Kate had left home, and gone into the station. She'd called Montgomery last night when they got home, to tell him they had found the girls, and to cancel the alert. So when she came in, she was a bit surprised. There were a lot of people in the bullpen, and she saw Frank over next to her desk.

"What's going on? Did someone else get lost?"

"Nope. We know who our killer is, and there's a massive manhunt going on to find him and bring him in. They figured out his identity a little over an hour ago, and they've sent Uni's out to the three places he's known to hang out."

"So who is it?" She asked.

"His name is Victor Buonocelli. I'm currently checking with my OCCB sources to see if we can find out who his associates are. If we can determine that, we might be able to find him first. It would be a big feather in our cap if we manage it." Frank said with excitement.

"Okay. Who do we talk to, and where do we go?"

"First I have to talk to one of my CI's. Give me a minute." Frank grabbed his cell phone, and called someone, and spoke for a moment. He hung up, and turned to Kate. "We need to meet him, out near his location. You ready to go?"

"Sure." She said.

"He thinks he's a bit of a tough cookie. He's my CI, so I've dealt with him before. Just let me do the talking." Frank spoke with a kind of condescending tone.

They left the Precinct, drove for about 15 minutes to a run-down coffee shop. They went in and sat down. One table over was an older African-American man. He was dressed in hip-hop clothes, and was pouring what looked like whiskey into his coffee. Frank started talking first. He kept his voice low.

"What's up, T.J. Thanks for meeting us here. You got the information we were talking about?" Frank asked him.

T.J. looked up from his drink, and saw Kate for the first time. "Hey, man. You can just leave. Me and this momma can do all the talking wid out chu. Just run along." He leered at Kate.

Just as Frank was about to speak, Kate leaned in, very friendly like. "Come on now, T.J. I just need a little information to make me happy. That's all. Can you tell us the location? I'm easy to please." She said, teasing him.

T.J. leaned over towards Kate. He smiled at her, as though he had her like a fish on the line. "Don't you worry, momma. I got your information right here." He said as he patted his pants pocket, a little to closely to his crotch.

Kate leaned in even closer, giving him a look down her shallow V-neck shirt. "So what do you have? What's the address?" She asked, smiling up at him, as if she was interested in him.

"I heard he's over at a friend's house in Brooklyn. He's on Troy Avenue, just off Atlantic Avenue. If you want momma, I could drive you over there. We'd have a really fun ride."

Frank cut in. "He's at Tony Rosaro's? Wow, I thought they hated each other."

Kate looked over at T.J. "Well, we've got to be going now. Thanks for your help." She spoke professionally, as she rose and strode out to Frank's car.

"I gotta say. You sure got that out of him a lot faster than I could." He said, with a smirk.

"Yeah. You just have to know how to talk to people." She told him back.

About 40 minutes later, they were driving down Atlantic Avenue.

"So who is this Tony Rosaro?" Kate asked.

"He's another enforcer for the Puerto Ricans. Normally, they'd be fighting each other, tooth and nail. Maybe this is one of those 'enemy of my enemy' things. Listen. When we get there, it's a regular house. We need to make sure he can't get away. I'll take the front door. You take the back, okay? And be prepared for when he comes running out. We wouldn't want any problems."

They got to the street, and parked three doors down. Kate could see in the windows of one side of the house. She saw someone standing by an upper window, and was standing there, talking on a phone. "Is that him?" She asked.

"Oh, yeah. That's Victor." Okay, you get to the back door. I'll wait five minutes, and then go to the front, alert police presence. He should be running your way within the minute." Frank said, with an evil smile.

Kate got out of the car, and worked her way to the back of the house. She didn't see anyone in any of the downstairs windows, and at the back of the house, the door was up at the top of a flight of stairs. She pulled her weapon and waited for Frank's move.

A moment later, she could hear him bellow. "NYPD! VICTOR BUONOCELLI! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" Kate prepared herself at the door. She heard someone run to the back door in the house. But what took her totally by surprise was that the door didn't open in. Instead, it opened out. Right into Kate's face.

The people coming out opened the door with such an impact, that it hit Kate and knocked her off the top of the stairs, over to the driveway 10 feet below her. She cried out in pain when she hit the ground below. She heard several pairs of footsteps jumping down the steps, three or four at a time, just before she passed out from the pain. The owners of those footsteps then ran out the back of the property to the next house over on the next street.

About 10 seconds later Frank came out the door running down the stairs. He saw Kate lying there, motionless. He hadn't heard any gunfire, so he didn't think she'd been shot. But he kept running after the suspects.

After a few minutes, Kate regained consciousness. She didn't see anyone around her. She used her one good hand and arm to dig out her cell phone from her other pocket. She called for an ambulance, and also to have them contact Rick. The bus got there in about 12 minutes. Frank still hadn't come back yet. The EMT's helped her into the ambulance, and they drove away, on their way to Mercy Hospital.


	15. Chapter 15

Rick had been busy trying to think of a good idea for the last Nikki Heat book series. He wasn't sure what he was going to do at the finale, but he still wanted to give the character a happy ending. And so, he'd been walking around the hotel room, recording his voice on his recorder that he normally kept in his breast pocket. Every time it got full (about once a week), he'd transfer the data onto his laptop. Fortunately, it was voice-activated, so he just left it on all the time, and it got his comments and ideas.

He was in the middle of talking through an idea with himself, when his cell phone rang.

"Richard Castle." He said, as he answered it.

"Mr. Castle. This is Detective Esposito, with the 12th Precinct. I just wanted to let you know that Kate's been in a bit of an altercation, and she is being taken to Mercy Hospital on Atlantic Ave, in Brooklyn."

"Oh, my gosh! Do we know anything about what happened to her? Was she shot? Is she still alive?"

"No, I'm afraid not. Only that there was a bus – sorry, an ambulance called for her. I'm sure the hospital can probably tell you a lot more than I can."

"Alright. Thanks, Detective, I'm heading there now." Rick ended the call, grabbed his jacket, and headed outside. He got a cab, and they drove him over to Mercy Hospital. It took forever to get there. By the time they'd arrived, Rick was getting frantic. He was barely polite enough to pay the cabbie with a goodly tip, and then ran into the hospital, heading right for the check-in desk.

"I hope you can help me. My wife was just brought in here, and she's a cop. I'm here to see her. Where is she? Um, her name is Kate Castle, tall, brunette."

"Just a moment, sir. Let me look up the name." It took the woman a moment. "I'm sorry sir, I don't see her listed. Are you sure she's here?"

"Oh, wait. Try her maiden name. She uses it at work. Look up Kate Beckett. Please."

The woman turned back to her computer. A few seconds later, she looked up and said. "Yes sir. She currently being looked at by one of our doctors. She hurt her arm. She's currently having X-rays done. They should be ready in about an hour. I can tell the doctor you're here, if you like?"

"Yes! Thank you! I'll wait here for him to come out. Thank you!" He said, with a concerned, but grateful, smile. When he found a seat, he pulled out his phone and called his brother, Joe.

"Joe? I'm over at Mercy Hospital in Brooklyn. I-" He was cut off. "Oh? You heard? Good. Yeah, I'm going to stay here until we receive the news from the doctor. For now, don't tell the girls yet. I don't want them to worry. I'll talk to Kate first, if I can, and we'll make that decision together." He paused. "Okay, I'll talk to you later." He hung up.

#

It was almost 90 minutes later before the doctor came out. "Family of Kate Beckett?" He called.

Rick nearly jumped up, and jogged over to the doctor. "Yes, I'm her husband. How is she? What happened? Will she be alright?" He sputtered all the questions out very rapidly.

"That's okay, Mr. Beckett. Just slow down, and let me explain. First, she only has a cracked ulna in her lower right arm. It seems she fell about 10 feet. Additionally, her head impacted against the pavement, and it appears she has a slight concussion, so we ran an MRI on her head to scan for any other damage. We found no internal damage, so I guess she probably has a hard head." The doctor said, with a chuckle.

"Yeah, but at least she's my hard head." Rick said, with a small smile. "Can I see her?"

"Sure, right this way. She's awake and resting in her room. We'll monitor her for a few more hours, and if there are no complications, she'll be moved to a private room tonight. She'll probably be here for two days. However, she'll probably be off work for two to four weeks." The doctor explained. By the time he'd finished, he waved Rick into her room, and added. "Tell her I'll be back around in about two hours to check on her and let her know the results of the tests and scans we did."

"Thank you, doctor." Rick said, and then turned to look into the room. Kate was sitting in bed, sipping water out of a cup that was in her left hand. On her right arm, it was wrapped up in a cast, and she had it hanging in a sling. When she saw Rick, she smiled a little.

"Hey, Kate. How do you feel once all the doctors got finished poking and prodding?"

"Well, at least it hurt less then when I fell on it." She said, with a grimace.

"Can I ask how it happened?"

"Yeah, this won't affect the active case. Daniels was calling out the suspects at the front of the house, and I was at the back of the house, ready to catch them if they came out. The problem was that the back door opened *out*, instead of the normal way of opening inward. When it opened out, it knocked me off the small back porch, and down onto the driveway below it. But I'll be fine."

Rick had winced when he heard Daniels name mentioned. "Uh huh. Well, the doctor said you'd probably be out for two to four weeks, and you'll be in the hospital for two days. I hope that won't be too bad."

"They always overestimate that stuff. I'll have it resolved in probably half that time." She pronounced confidently.

"Well, I'm just glad you're not any more badly hurt. I'm sure that the girls will be very happy you'll be spending more time with them."

"Mm-hmm. That will be one silver lining." When she said this, Rick got the distinct impression that there was something else on her mind. But he didn't want to push, and make her angry, he decided not to speculate on it out loud.

"Can I get you anything? A cup of coffee? Something from the cafeteria? Massage your feet? I know you always liked that." Rick looked at her with a bit of a hint of puppy dog eyes.

"Well, I guess I could use a shoulder massage. They won't let me have any caffeine until the pain killers wear off, and that won't be for three to four more hours."

Rick had her lean forward, so she wasn't leaning back on the pillow. Then he had her rotate so that her lower legs were hanging off the right side of the bed. He helped her to make sure that her right arm wouldn't be jostled from the change of position. He then went to the other side of the bed. He started to massage her back.

At first, Kate seemed to tense up when he touched her, but he kept his fingers as professional as possible. After a moment, her shoulders started to relax, and he could finally start working the muscle tenseness out. She was just wearing the standard hospital gown, so he was easily able to reach directly to her skin, instead of shifting her shirt out of the way. As he began putting pressure on her back and shoulders, he marveled at how smooth her skin was. Her skin was as soft as he remembered he missed it so much. He didn't know what he was thinking, but he placed a soft kiss to her left temple. Then he waited for a moment to see how she would react, but she didn't so rubbed her trapezius muscles on either side of the back of her neck. He worked his way down both sides of her spine, working out all the knots and kinks he could find, especially in her lower back lumbar region. He could feel her groan when he was able to clear an area, and once, he could have sworn he heard her moan, but he didn't dare pause or make a comment about it. He knew he wasn't on good enough terms with her yet.

And yet… he leaned over one more time, and softly kissed her pulse point on the right-side of her neck. It had been so long since he'd been with her, or near her, or even touched her. He couldn't help himself from at least this small tenderness. However, when he did that, she straightened up her hospital gown top. "We can't..." She said in a whisper.

"Kate?"

"Just go please." She cut him off.

"It's not wrong." He said, a slight pleading in his voice.

Rick... Just don't make things harder then they are already, we're both moving on with our lives. I know sometimes it's hard to let go, but it would be just easier on the girls if we tried to move on."

"Okay if that's what you want. Rick said, heartbroken. "I didn't want us to end this way. I don't want us to end, at all."

"I know, but even before the tape we were falling apart." She said softly, as tears started falling from her eyes.

"I know it seems that I stopped being your husband, and a father, and I was stupid to think that sending you gifts would make up for that, and that I would forget or cancel our dates. I would take you to events, but I would spent more time with other writers then with you, and I'm sorry Kate."

Kate wiped the tears off her cheek. "Do you know what I wanted most in the world?"

"What?" He asked.

"I wanted to hear you say I love you, a real 'I love you' not just one that you would add every time you had to cancel on me. That's all I wanted."

"I'm sorry, I want to say more then sorry but I don't know what else to say."

Rick finished helping Kate to relax back onto the bed. Once she was in place, he walked to the door.

Frank walked in, just then, and asked. "What's he doing here?" He looked Kate in the eye, as if he couldn't decide if he was trying to scare her, or flatter her into kicking him out.

"When the EMT's stopped by for me, I asked them to call him. Despite the current problems, he still is my husband."

Frank turned to Rick. "I don't see why you're hanging around. You screwed up royally, and you can never fix it. Why don't you just buzz off."

Rick stood up for himself. "My wife was injured. I care about her wellbeing, and I love her. I'm always going to be here for her."

Rick didn't notice it, but Kate had a small, sad smile on her face when he said that, before she schooled her features to be neutral again. Frank noticed it, however, and it made him even angrier with Rick.

"Well, why don't you go and sit with that slut you made that movie with. I'm sure she'd much rather have your attention there, than here." Frank said, bringing up the sex video, in hopes of getting Kate angry with Rick, like it had before.

"I've said this before, and I'll say it again. That wasn't me. It was a celebrity impersonator, and I'm making arrangements for him to come and be here, for Kate to see." Rick says, matter-of-fact. At this, Kate perks up. She hadn't realized that.

"Yeah, sure, writer-play-boy. Like people are really going to believe that."

"It's the simple truth. It wasn't me. I have always been true to Kate, and I always will be true to her. I may not have paid as much attention to her as she deserved lately, but I would never be with another woman, ever!" Rick insisted strenuosly.

Kate can see this argument going on forever, so she intercedes.

"Rick? If you would, why don't you go home for now. Maybe see the girls for a bit. I'll get home later tonight, and I'll talk to you in the morning, okay?" Kate asks, with a slight pleading look

"Of course. If you're sure?" He asked.

"Yeah. I'll be moved to the new room in about two or three hours. It's okay." She told him.

He had one final thing to tell her. "Kate, as much as I hate the way things seem to be going, I don't want you to have to worry about the Nikki Heat series. I'm already over halfway thru writing it. I've decided that the next book I write for it will be the last. I'll give it a proper resolution, so that fans will get a completed series. Nikki and Rook will get their happy ending." 'Unlike ours.' He thought to himself, sadly.

"So, I'll head out now. Just give me a call if you need anything. I'm going to visit the girls, and then head back to my hotel. I'll be leaving there, and going over to Morningside Condos. It's a nice place at the north end of Morningside Park. I've heard a lot about it." Then, Rick leaned over and kissed Kate on the forehead. It wasn't where he actually wanted to kiss here, but he wanted to make sure she knew that he cared. And with that, he left the room, under the glare of Detective Daniels, and the sad, unseen smile on Kate.

#

After Rick left her room, he wandered thru the hospital, deep in his thoughts. Did he really take Kate for granted? Did he treat her badly? Did he try to buy her off? He ran all his memories through his mind. Looking back on as many things as he could. Yes, there were some times when he didn't stay with Kate, or didn't bring her with him on important things. But he never flirted with other women, or do anything with them that Kate would disapprove of. But he did meet a lot of the fairer sex in his work. He did his best to be polite and friendly to them. He also knew that Gina had tried to push him into flirting with them a lot, but he had always done his best to be… a nice person? A married guy who… liked talking to people and learning their stories? Did he really do things that Kate wouldn't be happy with? But no matter what, he'd never had problems with his fans, or with Kate, like he'd had on this last book tour. All Gina wanted was him to be a charming, flirty, playboy. A bad boy. He wasn't stupid, most of the time. He knew his looks were appealing to many women. But, when did he cross the line? How did he cross the line? Is he worthy of Kate anymore? Is he worthy of being a dad?

By this point, he'd walked his way back until he was at Kate's room again. As he approached, he heard her talking to someone. He cautiously looked around the corner of the doorway. There, inside the room, he saw Frank sitting on Kate's bed. He was holding her left hand with his right, and he was bending over her, cupping her right cheek with his left hand, while he was kissing her. He was kissing her!

He recalled what Kate had asked for. "All you had to do was to tell her that you loved her." Rick said to himself, as he was watching Frank and Kate from concealment by the hospital door. He had to find a good way to interrupt them.

He thought he had an idea.

"Okay, thanks! I will." He called 0ut, as if to someone down the hallway. He then came through the door into Kate's room. "Kate? Have you got a minute?" He asked.

Even though he had given them a good 10 seconds warning of him coming in, Daniels was still cupping her cheek, but at least Kate had pulled back from the kiss. She turned to Rick.

"Yeah, what did you want to ask me?" She said.

"Hmm. I think I'd like to ask you the question in private, if you don't mind." Rick said, glancing at Frank.

Kate looked at Frank with an "I'm sorry" kind of look, and asked him, "Do you mind? Just for a bit?"

"Sure, Babe. I'll be right outside." Frank said, deliberately using Rick's nickname for Kate, in front of Rick. He also gave Rick a death glare, but Rick had been subject to a *real* death glare from Kate a few times, it had no effect. Frank walked out of the room, allowing his shoulder to hit Rick's shoulder.

'What is this, high school, again?' Rick mused to himself.

"So what's up, Rick. What did you want to ask me?"

"First, I want to tell you something. Kate, I love you. I have always loved you from the day I met you, and I will always love you until the day I die. There has been no one else, there is no one else, and there *will be* no one else for me. Ever."

Although Kate did roll her eyes a bit, she also blushed slightly. And Rick noticed.

"And is there something you wanted to ask me, Rick?"

"Um-mm." Rick said, clearing his throat. "Yes. I intend to find that impersonator that I had mentioned before. Would you allow me to bring him by here, or the loft when he gets into town, so that I can prove myself to you?" Rick knew that the impersonator had been in town only a shot few days ago, but he was determined to find him again.

Kate didn't answer at once. Rick cleared his throat once more, in nervousness. Finally, she said. "Yes. If you can bring him here, and he can prove to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was him in that movie, and not you, I will listen before I finally decide."

"Thank you, Kate. I greatly appreciate that you are giving me a chance to prove myself. I will do so. But in closing, I only wish to say that I love you. And no matter what happens, you are the only one in my heart. No one else."

And at that comment, Kate felt she had to say it. "Not even Megan?" As she looked at Rick, questioningly.

When Kate asked him this, he looked startled. At first, Kate couldn't be sure if he was surprised, or just shocked that someone had found out his secret. But after a second, she could see it was just confused shock.

"Megan? I don't care about Megan. I don't wish her harm, but she is nothing to me." Rick paused. "Oh… did you come to my hotel room the morning after we found the girls? I think Megan was there that night. Of course, I had drunk myself into a stupor." He paused again, having a realization of what had actually happened. "Megan! She was the one that helped me out of the bar in the lounge. I thought she stole my shoes? I talked to her briefly that morning, and then she left. I fell back asleep again. Oh!" He realized agin. "I still had all my clothes on! Except my shoes… I guess I passed out all night long. We did NOT do anything together. I swear! Like I said before, Kate. It's just you, and only you."

"Well, at the very least, I don't think getting drunk is the best solution. You can't drink and be around the girls. If you have them for your two weeks, there can be no getting drunk! Got it?"

"Yes, of course. I apologize, Kate. It was only because of the events at the end of that evening that drove me to it, and I won't do that again. I love the girls almost as much as I love you. I won't do it again."

#

Castle headed over to the loft to see the girls for a bit. Joe had been there, keeping them busy, so when Rick showed up, it was like the Second Coming. They ran to him, screaming, and laughing. Rick picked them both up, and they went to play some games, and have a dolly tea party. (Rick was an exceptionally good host, pouring the tea, and serving the invisible cookies.)

After about two hours, he put the girls down for a nap, and told them he'd see them the next day. The girls weren't too thrilled about waiting until then, so he made up a story for them, about an evil dragon, and two beautiful twin princesses. Plus, there was also a prince who was not so bright. He came to save them, but the princesses figured things out and saved the prince. The girls finally fell asleep.

Rick then went back to his hotel, and because he knew that his chances were dwindling even lower for getting back together with Kate, he felt it best to have a permanent place to live. He called the front desk and arranged for them to ship all the boxes that Kate had sent him, over to the Morningside Luxury Condominiums, at the north end of Morningside Park, in the Upper-west side of Manhattan. He had spoken with his lawyer a few days before, and although he didn't want to, it turned out that he'd need a more permanent place to stay. He took his own suitcase and laptop, and caught a cab over to the condominiums. When he arrived, he checked in with the managing realtor, and finalized all the paperwork. Apparently, it was very quick when you paid it all up front. He was able to purchase a one year lease, and they said they could fully furnish for him within 48 hours, as part of the lease cost. Once it was all done, he went back to the hotel for one final night, and the next morning, he officially moved into his condo.

He had gotten himself set up, with the den becoming his office for writing. Thank goodness, that there was a table he could use. They moved it for him, from the dining room to the den, until they brought the final furniture in two days later. They then gave him a few keycards for his condo. He slipped one of them into his wallet, and put the others in an inner pocket of his laptop.

The entire condominium only cost him about $900,000, which was a very good price for a five-bedroom, five and a half bath condo, with full concierge service, and a small 25' long pool on the roof. There were a number of trees outside, covering the complex, with bushes around the base of each building. The parking areas for each building were about five feet beneath ground level, so the cars would be kept relatively isolated from the weather, and his den was on the first floor, with the window about five feet above the bushes, which were five feet tall, themselves. The windows were looking out towards two fully-grown trees that separated him from the next condo over, which was about 50 feet away. The other side of his condo faced south, into Morningside Park, so he had a fabulous view of the park, with the high-rise buildings of Manhattan farther south of it.

Rick was about half an hour into getting his new home set up that morning, when he got a call. It was from Gina's secretary, Jackie.

"Mr. Castle? Do you think you could stop by Black Pawn Publishing tomorrow? I really need to see you and talk to you." Jackie said, sounding very anxious.

"I don't know, Jackie. Things are a bit hectic, and I'm not quite sure if I'll have the time for that. Can it wait?"

"No, sir. It's very important that you stop by tomorrow. Currently, I'm not at work, but if you can stop by tomorrow, I think you'll be very interested in seeing what I have to show you. Please? Can you make the time? I guarantee it'll be worth your while!"

"Alright, Jackie. I'll be in tomorrow, and talk to you. Would 2- or 3-o'clock be okay?"

"Yes, Mr. Castle. I'll see you then. Thank you very much, sir." Jackie said, and then she hung up very quickly.

"That was weird." He said to himself.

#

About an hour later, the movers brought over his boxes from the Cosmopolitan Hotel, and unloaded their belongings in his closet, and dresser. After all that was done, he went into his den and sat down at his laptop. Then, he turned on his voice-activated recorder that he used to take verbal notes when he wasn't at the computer, so that he could go back later, and type in his notes, as if he was dictating to himself. It was still showing, "YOU SHOULD BE WRITING", repeatedly, from his screensaver. Thirty minutes later, he was still sitting there, still watching the screensaver text to him, still lost in thought, and still wondering how things had gone so wrong.

He then remembered something he had talked to Joe about on the phone that morning, when he told him about his move to the condo. He had planned to bring the girls over to show them where he'd be living. He called ahead, and told them he was on his way over to pick up the girls.

#

When Rick arrived at the loft, it was just Joe there, with the girls. Thankfully, there was no Frank. 'Hallelujah!' Rick thought to himself.

"Hi, Joe. I'm here to bring the two building inspectors over to check out my place. Are they ready to go? With all their tools?" Rick said, loud enough for the girls to hear.

"Daddy! We're ready!" Alexis called out, as she and Lacey came running down the stairs, their little knapsacks on their back.

"Remember girls, we have the movie this afternoon that you wanted to see, so get back by one, okay?" Joe reminded the girls.

"We will, Unca Joe. We'll be here. It will be as easy as cake." Lacey said. "Yep, it'll be a piece of pie." Alexis added.

"Uh, girls? It's 'easy as pie' and 'a piece of cake'." Rick mentioned.

"Don't get them confused." Joe said, with a smile. "They've been purposely mixing it up backwards for a few weeks now. They aren't going to change."

Rick could only think that it was just one more thing that he was missing out on, as a father. How many more things will he miss, until eventually he's just a strange old man that can only visit the girls on their birthday?

Rick made an effort to put those kinds of thoughts to the back of his mind. "Well, let's go. We have a house to inspect, and then lunch to assemble, and you get to decide where!" He smiled broadly at the girls. But Joe caught the brief look of despair on his face before he said that.

The girls all followed Rick out the door. "I'll have them back by 12:30, if that's okay?"

"You bet. We'll be ready for them then." Kate replied, and Rick shut the door behind himself.

Throughout all of it, Joe sat at the kitchen counter. He knew his brother. His brother would never betray Kate's trust. But she seemed to be convinced that he had, and she was now interested in this Detective Daniels. What's going to happen if they get together? Or worse, what if they get married? That Detective would kick him out. He'd probably see his nieces even less than Rick would, he thought to himself, sadly. He'd been talking up the positives of Rick's qualities and dedication for weeks now, and it didn't seem to be doing much good. At the rate things were going, he didn't think that Rick had much of a chance left to convince Kate of his devotion to her. For now, at least, he'd be here to help the girls, and remind them of their dad, and how much both their mom and dad love them both. He just wished things didn't look so gloomy.

#

When Rick and the girls got to the condo, they walked around outside for a bit. It was nice having a park nearly right outside of your door. They spent about half an hour there, and then they went up to Rick's place, so he could show them around.

"So what do you girls think?" Rick asked, after the girls had looked around the various rooms.

"Whose place is this?" Alexis asked.

"And why is there no furniture?" Lacey asked also with a giggle.

Rick let out a sad sigh. He hoped it didn't come to this, but here he was, about to explain getting a divorce to his seven-year-old daughters, he sat on the ground and placed one on each leg.

"Daddy what's wrong?" Lacey asked. "Girls this is my place, it's mine, I live here, now." Rick could see the two little girls smiles turn into frowns, which he hated.

"Sometimes two people can't make things work anymore and that's what happened to Mommy and Daddy, So… Mommy is going to live at the loft and I'm going to live here."

"But why? Why can't we all live together?" Alexis asked, trying to hold back her tears.

Lacey answered Alexis' question. "It's that stupid police man that Mommy keeps talking to. I even saw him KISS HER once! Mommy had him take care of us a couple times when Unca Joe couldn't be there. He wasn't nice to us. He wouldn't play with us like you do. He couldn't do all the funny voices, or the funny looks that you can do. He just wasn't a good babysitter. Even Unca Joe can do some of the stuff that you do. He just sat and read a magazine, and asked us if we wanted apples or grapes. He sai we 'had to eat good', and that we couldn't have ice cream."

"Yeah!" Alexis said. "One time, I couldn't find my special purple shoes, the ones that sparkle? And he gave my my shiny black ones and said they were just as good. Come on, daddy. You know how important my Sparkly Shoes are, right?"

"Yes, I do know that. I also know that you usually throw them behind your bed, where they fall underneath, and you lose them until I come up there. How could he not know that you usually keep them there?" Rick asked, with mock horror.

"Yeah, I know!" Lacey added in. "Mostly he's boring. He just sits there, and wants us to read our books all the time. He says it's good to read and be smart. Well, I read! I even write my own pictures of the stories you tell us at bedtime. I just wish he'd go away…" Lacey trailed off, disgustedly.

"Yeah, and I'll bet he doesn't do 'The Claw' right. Nothing can stop The Claw!" Rick added, under his breath.

"Well, I'm not going away forever. Your mommy and I didn't figure that out yet. We'll see." Rick told them.

"But I still want to know why you still can't live with us, Daddy?"

"Cause Mommy and I are getting divorced, which means that Mommy and Daddy won't be married, so they don't live together anymore."

Lacey busted into tears right away, and Alexis followed righ after. Rick held them closer to him, and kissed the tops of their heads.

"Paige's Mommy and Daddy divorced and Paige hardly see's her Daddy cause her Mommy and Daddy hate each other," Alexis said her voice almost croaking from her crying.

"It won't be like that."

"Yes, it will, cause we can't see you ever' day." Alexis protested.

"I'm sorry, Pumpkin. I didn't want it to end this way, but do you want me or Mommy to be sad all the time cause that's what we are like now."

"What's going to happen to us, we want to see you and Mommy?" Lacey asked her voice also a bit croaky, from crying also.

"Well, Mommy and I still have to figure that out but I want you guys to remember something. Me and Mommy still love you girls so much, and we will never stop."

"We love you too, Daddy." The twins said at the same time. "Let's talk about something different," Rick said lifting the two twins off his legs and standing up.

"Like what?" Alexis asked. "So do you two want to share a room or do you want separate rooms?" Rick asked.

"I want to share," Lacey said. "Me too." Alexis joined in.

"How about we talk bedroom designs over a happy meal?" Rick said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood.

"I want a cheeseburger," Alexis said running out the front door. "I want nuggets," Lacey called out also running at the front door. He picked both of his girls up, and even though they were still a little weepy, he hoped he had convinced them. But he didn't feel so convinced himself. After eating with his daughters, he took them back home in time for their movie. He then decided to go back to the hospital and see how Kate was doing.

#

Rick opened Kate's hospital room door to see Kate half asleep in her hospital bed. "Should I come back another time?" Rick quietly asked Kate.

"No, it's fine." Kate rubbed her eyes, and let out a yawn. "Come in." Kate also added.

"So I talked to the girls and showed them the condo," Rick said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"How did they take it?" Kate asked holding back her heartbreak. "They cried and they're upset but what kid wouldn't be about their parents divorcing?"

"Rick I was thinking. Before we take this to court, we could talk about some things first."

"I understand you don't want to make things worse than they are."

"First is money, the only money I want is child support and don't worry about the condo cause I won't be able to afford the loft so I'll move out and the loft is yours."

"I'll pay for child support and the loft; I want you and the girls in a secure place away from the press and any fans."

"Okay," Kate said knowing Rick wouldn't give up if she said no. "Custody. this is going to be the hardest thing."

"Maybe we could do a parent trap thing?" Rick joked which made Kate laugh also it was great to laugh just like old times.

"Every two weeks sound good to you? You'll have them for two weeks, and then I'll have them for two weeks?" Rick asked.

"Yep, and if I have a case that I must stay overnight, I'll drop them at your place."

"And the same applies if I go out of town." Rick agreed. "What are we going to do about Christmas and birthdays?" Rick asked again.

"Well, you can take them on Christmas Eve and then I could come over for Christmas morning? Unless you want me to come in the afternoon, instead?"

"No. Christmas morning is fine, even if you want to sleep over in the guest room on Christmas Eve."

"Don't you think it would be a bit awkward?" She asked.

"I know that Jim and Johanna go out of town on Christmas, and I don't want you to be lonely on Christmas Eve, or on Christmas day."

"And you'll have Frank," Rick muttered under his breath. "Okay and that brings us to our next thing." Kate hesitated.

"Which is?"

"Dating other people, If you end up finding someone and end up dating I would like it if before you introduce them or mention them to the girls if we could talk about it first, I know what your thinking with Frank but I've only introduced Frank as a friend to Lacey and Alexis."

"Yeah, sure." Rick said, not so successfully hiding his dismay.

"Do you need help with a lawyer?" Kate asked. "No, I was actually on my way to a meeting about one." Rick lied getting off the bed. He said his goodbyes, and headed out.

#

Rick returned to his own place, and sat down in the den. He planned to write some more of the current Nikki Heat book, and wanted to put in some portents of the coming end of the series. But he hadn't been able to write anything. He was sitting there for so long; he finally got up and went to make himself some coffee. He'd gotten a bag of Jamaican Blue coffee beans down from the cupboard, and opened it, preparing to put it in the grinder to make the coffee. The grinder hummed away, giving him a nice amount of fine ground coffee. He had it in a large measuring cup, getting ready to pour it into the coffee filter, when he heard his front door close. He stepped to one side, so he could get a view of the front door.

Rick was very startled to see Detective Daniels waltzing in to his locked condominium. "What the hell are you doing here?" He demanded, giving Frank a glare of his own. There was something off about the Detective, but now, he couldn't place it.

"Oh, I just thought I'd come around, say hi, see what your new place looks like… and maybe get a signature, ya know?"

This should be good, Rick thought. "And why would I do that for you? You're just a home-wrecker!" Rick said more sharply.

"Well, that's not very neighborly of you. Don't you know how to be polite, and friendly?" Frank continued. "A lot of us cops were surprised when we heard about Kate. She was so hot! And as by the book as they come. Plus, she was a hell of a cop. Her team has a closure rate that is in the top five in the city. When she finally gets her own team, I'm sure she'll be the best. And any cop that works with her will be the best, as well. Plus, the cop that gets to BE with her? That'll be one lucky guy."

Rick gave him a smirk. "Well, I think you're a little too late for that. She's been married to me for coming up on nine years in November. I don't see any opportunity for any cop to BE with her, as you put it. You know what they say: You snooze, you lose."

"That may be, but Kate wants you to sign the divorce papers. Once you do that, it's open season again, and you'll be out of the running." Frank said, with a laugh.

"I will *never* sign those papers. I will always be there for Kate and the girls. I will love her till the day I die." Rick said, defiantly.

Frank paused, and then said. "Well… it's funny you should say that."

"Yeah, and why is that, Daniels?"

"Nothing personal, Rick. Well, actually it IS personal. You're in my way. But I'm a nice guy. I gave you a nice little get together with your daughters. That way they have something nice to remember you by. And I even let you talk to your soon-to-be ex-wife. I heard you in there, trying to convince her of your 'True Love'. Yeah, right. You wouldn't know it if it hit you. So, I think we need to put you out of our misery. What I'm going to do is kill you, but I'm going to make it look like a crazy fan did it. You see, this crazy fan girl broke in here this evening, she was so angry that she couldn't have you only for herself. So when she found that out, she decided that if she couldn't have you, NOBODY could have you. And she killed you with this throw-away gun, that I just happened to have with me. Can you imagine that?" Frank paused one more time, while Rick looked confused, and then shocked as he realized what Frank was saying.

"So, you see, I'll be the one to comfort Kate… in your bed! I'm going to enjoy every minute of that experience. I'm sure that it's possible that it will get boring after a while, but Kate… she has it all. Looks, money, talent. Oh, there will be SO much money! You're a rich guy, so it would be much better if you didn't sign the papers. That way she'll get it all. You know what happens with the death of an 'ar-teest', don'tcha?" He said in a bad French accent. "The value of their work goes up in price, and all the money will go to the surviving spouse, Kate. And the guy she'll be with… Me!" Frank said, unable to control his laugh at the enjoyment he was getting from making Rick so angry.

"I'm going to spread her out on the bed, and screw her every way I can! Maybe give her one or two of my kids. I'm sure they'll be a lot better behaved then your two little sluts. And that's when I'll put a ring on her finger." He paused, and imagines it for a moment. "Of your two girls, Lacey might take a little bit of time, but with a bit of hands-on child rearing, in the end, your two little girls will forget all about you, and they will be calling me Daddy. And even though Kate is really hot, and I'm sure the sex will be wild, I'd imagine it'll probably get boring after the third or fourth kid. So finally, after I've gotten everything I want out of it, I'll divorce her, and just like what the broads do to us, I'll tell my lawyer that she has to support me in the manner that I've become accustomed to. I'll be single again, getting a lot of money, and I won't have anybody to take care of except myself. It'll be paradise! I can't lose."

Throughout Frank's monologue, Rick has been getting angrier, and angrier. He's thinking to himself. 'I've got to keep my cool. I can't let on that I'm going to try and stop him. But how?'

Finally, Rick decides to try to go for a nonchalant attitude, in order to try to lull Frank into underestimating him. "Wow, you seem to have a busy night planned. All that, huh? When are you going to stop and rest? You want a cup of coffee? You're probably going to need the energy burst from it. You want me to make you a cup?" He asked.

Frank casually, reached for his gun, and started to extract it from his holster, saying. "Sure, may as well enjoy myself a bit." It was at this moment that Rick finally saw what was off about the Detective. He was wearing purple evidence gloves, so there would be no fingerprints left behind. Rick was in big trouble, and he knew it.

At that moment, Rick still had the ground up coffee beans in the holder in his right hand. With a quick flick of his arm, he threw all of the coffee into Frank's face, and ran for the dining room door, behind him.

Rick was fortunate, and had gotten Frank fully in the right eye, but his left hand had come up, and deflected a bit more than half of the grounds from hitting his left eye. It took about 10 seconds for Daniels to clear his left eye enough to be able to see where he was going, and to follow Rick's escape path.

Rick had closed the dining room door behind him, and had shoved the one remaining chair up under the doorknob. Then he ran for the bedroom door, and locked it from the inside. Just as he locked the door, he heard Daniels kick the dining room door open. Rick ran for the balcony in the bedroom. He had to fumble with the door lock, and just as he got it to open, he heard Daniels run into the bedroom door behind him. The door was made of sterner stuff than the dining room door. Rick heard Daniels fire his gun, and the door shot open, just as Rick was about to jump over the balcony, down to the ground, 10 feet below. Frank took a quick shot at him, and just as Rick was about to pass below floor level, he felt a sharp pain shock him in his upper right arm. He involuntarily grabbed his arm, and stumbled when he landed. He made a sharp right turn, and started running down the sidewalk beside the buildings, heading for the main street sidewalk, about 100 feet further to the north.

Behind Rick, Frank had gotten to the balcony. He could see Rick running away northward, at a good clip. Since Frank was using a handgun, he knew he didn't have much time left before Rick got beyond the accurate range of his gun. So he quickly focused, aimed, and took a shot at Rick. He wasn't sure, but he thought he'd hit Rick high in the upper left back, because Rick went down. Rick was down for a good eight or ten seconds, and Frank was hoping he'd done the job, but Rick started to move, and started crawling rapidly, the last twenty feet or so, to West 123rd Street. Frank quickly jumped from the balcony, landing deftly on his feet, and started running after Rick. (It helps when no one is shooting at you!). He then saw that Rick had made it to his feet, and was staggering towards the street.

Rick had just gotten to the sidewalk, and Daniels had made 40 feet in the 20 feet it took Rick to get to the street. Rick was about to turn right (east), when Frank shot one final time. Frank had decided that he'd try a Hail Mary, and go for a head shot. But Rick was already starting to turn his body, and his head, when Frank's shot hit him, and he went down, laying him out on the city sidewalk. And as soon as Frank saw a person step up to Rick, Frank high-tailed it into the trees next to Rick's condominium, and headed for his own care, two blocks away, in the other direction, leaving Rick bleeding out on the street.

 **Trust me you will want to stick around for next chapter cause that is the last chapter then theres three part epilogue. Which explains how the characters end up.. you will also not regret not waiting around for that one.**

 **Then after this story it will be more about Joe but will be set in a different universe.**

 **Also no ranting about season eight I know were all angry about it but it has nothing to do with the story.**

 **Thank you for all your reviews and your follows, Keep the reviews up.**

 **xxLillyxx**


	16. Chapter 16

In less than 10 minutes after falling to the ground, an ambulance had shown up. However, it only took about three minute for a cop car to stop next to Rick. This was because of all the ruckus of people around Rick. This shooting didn't occur in a dank, dark alley. Instead, it ended up on a busy New York street. Unfortunately, none of the passers-by had any medical training, but someone called 9-1-1. This quickly led to a cop car had showing up. Due to all the blood from his head wound, Rick wasn't recognizable at first. It wasn't until the EMT's checked his wallet, and found his name. Once they told the cops, the cops knew that Kate was his wife, and her commanding officer was contacted. They then got Rick to Mount Sinai Hospital. In the meantime, Captain Montgomery contacted Kate at the hospital.

Kate told her doctor about Rick's extensive injuries, and requested (demanded, actually) to be moved to Mount Sinai, or be released early. The doctor strongly recommended against it, but Kate went anyway. She caught a cab to his hospital about an hour into his surgery. She took up a seat in the waiting room, right hand in a cast and all. Once she arrived, she called Martha and Joe. Martha said she'd be driving in from the Hamptons and would be there soon. Joe agreed to stay with the twins, until he could have someone else watch them.

The surgery took more than 7 hours. Martha had arrived a few hours after Kate, and she'd brought Joanna with her, and all three women waited together. Finally, Rick was then moved to the ICU Ward for monitoring. Then a doctor came out saying "Family of Richard Castle." Kate, Martha, and Joanna jumped right up, and identified themselves. When this happened, other people who were waiting for their own family member, recognized Rick's name, and were straining to hear. Fortunately, the doctor noticed this, and led Kate, and the two older women over to a side room for privacy.

The doctor told them how many times Rick had been shot.

"He's been shot three times!?" Martha gasped, with one hand over her mouth and the other clutching her heart. Kate tried to remain stoic, but her eyes gave away her own panic at hearing this. Joanna was not in any better shape then Martha, when she heard this.

The doctor continued. "The first gunshot was relatively minor, as compared to the others. It was in his upper right arm. It was a through and through, so there will be some muscle damage to be repaired. The second did the most damage. It penetrated the upper left lung. In addition to sewing things up, we also have to do a chest tube, to help re-inflate the lung, and drain excess fluid out, plus he's on a breathing tube. The last bullet didn't appear to do much physical damage, in that it just grazed his skull badly. But because of the hit, he lost consciousness, and that caused him to fall to the ground and hit his head. When examining him, we detected pressure of his brain swelling up, so we had to shave off most of his hair, in order to operate on his skull. This allowed us to relieve that pressure. As you can imagine, he does have a concussion. Additionally, he came in to us already in a coma, and actually, that's not so bad, because he'll have a better chance of healing. But obviously, we're waiting for him to wake up so that we can verify if or how much, mental damage was done. It's possible it could affect his memory, or his personality. We are hopeful of it being only a day or two, but it could be a week or two. Lastly, when you go see him, we've got him on an ART tube, which is an arterial tube used to monitor Rick's blood pressure, by tapping directly into the radial artery in his left forearm."

Kate asked first. "Can we go in and sit with him?"

In answer to her question, the doctor said: "Well, because of his condition, we have him in the ICU because he has to be very closely monitored. The ICU Ward doesn't have individual rooms, just beds separated by privacy curtains. There's really room for only one of you at a time."

Kate knew that Martha was Rick's mother, and considering how the last month had gone, it wouldn't have surprised her to have Martha insist on seeing Rick first. But Martha asked Kate to allow her to be the first to go see him. Then Joanna would take their turns and see him after her. Lastly, Kate would go, and could stay with Rick, spending a lot longer if she wanted.

Martha left. As Martha was walking away to see Rick, Joanna told Kate. "If you don't mind, I'l only need about 5 or 10 minutes. Then you can stay with him, and watch over him after that, alright? You are his wife, after all. If- When he wakes up," Joanna corrected herself. "He'll be asking for you, first." That made Kate wonder to herself. 'Will he ask for me? Or Megan? Or Gina?' But, she agreed with her mother.

"Go ahead, Mom. I'll be out here. Let me know when I can be near him."

"That's fine, dear. Do you want to call Joe to bring the girls by?"

"No, I'd rather not for something like this. It would scare them. I think we should wait until the doctors can give me some kind of assurance that he will live. If the worst happens, I'd like the girls to remember their last time with their dad as being fun and happy and loving."

#

Kate went to the hospital cafeteria to get some coffee. It was about three in the morning, by this point. Coffee would help. She picked up her coat and walked away, with the coat slung over her shoulders. As she did that, three people of the dozen or so who were waiting, took pictures of her, and sent texts or made calls to people that they knew. And within an hour, the press had been notified.

Kate came back in about 15 minutes, and waited for another 25 minutes. That was when Martha and a nurse came out. Martha walked up to Kate and gave her a big hug. "Katherine. I'm sorry I took so long. I needed to be near my son." Martha said, with an apologetic look on her face. "He looks like he's sleeping, but his whole head is bandaged. I hope he'll be okay, and wake up soon. Joanna? You go be with him next." Joanna left, following the nurse. Martha turned to Kate. "He needs you with him. I'm going home, to Joe and the girls. Jim couldn't make it yet, because he's in California. He said he'd be taking a flight home around noon. He'll be there with us by dinner. Call me if anything develops, alright?"

Kate nodded, and watched Martha leave the hospital. Several reporters tried to ask her questions, but she knew how to deflect their questions, and change the topic to something not specific to Rick or Kate. Kate just shook her head in amazement as she waited for her own mother to come back from seeing Rick.

Finally, after a short while, Joanna came back. "Okay, Katie. It's your turn now. Just follow the nurse. She'll take you to Rick. I'll see you tomorrow. Maybe by lunch, okay?"

"I'll be here, Mom. I'm not going anywhere." Kate gave her mother a goodbye kiss, and then Kate followed the nurse who led her to Rick's ICU bed.

When she got back to Rick's bed, with just curtains for walls, she was stunned at how small, and hurt he looked. He was very pale, and it almost seemed like the bed was too big for him. There were several IV's, tubes, and wires running into and out of Rick's body. There was a huge, clear, garden-hose of a tube running right into his upper left chest. Additionally, there was another slightly smaller tube running into his mouth, that was hooked to a machine helping him to breath. His eyes were closed, but the left side of his face was black and blue, from where he was shot, and where he hit the ground. He didn't look like it was possible to survive such injury to him. Tears came to her eyes when she saw it all. She felt a nudge at her elbow, and turned to look. She saw the nurse who had escorted her to Rick. She offered a package of Kleenex. "Why don't you sit down next to him? Sit on his right side. That way you can hold his right hand, which doesn't have any tubes going into it. Holding that hand won't hurt anything. Even when people are unconscious, they can sometimes hear that you are there, or feel you holding or squeezing their hands. It can reassure them, and it can help reassure you, too. Go ahead, honey. He needs you!" She said quietly, to Kate, before smiling and walking away.

Kate went over to his bed, and pulled the chair close to his right side. She sat down, got a few Kleenexes out, dabbing her eyes with her left hand, while the other hand clumsily held Rick's hand. She gave it a squeeze or two, but for the moment, it was warm, but limp. However, it was the very fact that it was warm, that proved that he was alive. She started to talk to him, in a hushed voice.

"Come back to me, Babe. I'm so sorry for everything that's happened since this damn book tour started. I wish we had had more time to talk to each other about these things. Maybe you really don't want to be with me. But I know that you love the girls, and they don't want to lose you. Please don't die!" Kate said, plaintively. "I know I may have over-reacted to some stuff. And I know that you under-reacted to other stuff as well. Sometimes I think that the girls see truer than we ever do. They always have needed you. And you have always needed them. But what with your celebrity persona, and my attitude for avoiding it because of my job, we never got it all straightened out. I miss you, Rick. Please come back to me, to us. Please?" She said, not knowing she was echoing his thoughts from a little more than forty-eight hours earlier.

#

Kate sat there for an hour, trying not to think about what had happened to Rick, and she thought that maybe she could think about things they had done together. Kate started reminiscing about when they first took the girls to Disney World, and did all the rides with them. They posed the girls with each of the characters from Disney movies that were wandering around. Lacey had loved all the princesses, but Alexis had loved Wendy, from Peter Pan the most. And Rick had tried to pretend to be Wendy The Princess, in order to appeal to both of the girls. He went and purchased a plus size gown from one of the stores, by saying he was buying it for his Aunt Bertha back home, as well as purchasing a fake diamond tiara, and a magic wand to wave. Then he ducked into a rest room while they were at the park. When he came out, his outfit was horrendously outrageous. It was a sickly green color, with a tiara that was too small, and it sat high up on his head. The wand was so flimsy, that he broke a bit off points of the star each time he waved it and touched anything. But the girls laughed so hard! They loved it, and that made her love it too. Princess Wendy had never been such a big hit. And Rick had worn it the following Halloween, to the horror of the girls, who refused to walk with him, or let him kiss them.

Kate sat there, unmoving, until about six that morning. She figured that she'd call Javi and find out the status of the investigation for Rick's shooting.

"Hey, Chica. Anderson and I were working the crime scene last night until 10 PM. We were able to ask a lot of questions when we canvassed the area. We found out that the manager had been approached by a cop with blonde hair, a mustache, and a southern accent. One of them 'Good Old Boys'. That was his description of they guy. Anyways, he said was investigating drug dealers in the condo complex, and needed a key card to open the doors. He even had a warrant. But when the manager showed us the warrant, we saw that the signing judge was Justice I.P. Freely. Some kind of a joke, but unfortunately it fooled the manager. So, he gave the cop a master key card, and never had it returned to him. We had CSI examine Rick's condo, but we were only able to find Rick's prints, and some prints that look like they were from some kids. Were your two girls over their recently?"

"Yeah. Rick took them to see the place yesterday morning, and then to a movie yesterday afternoon. I think he as planning on writing yesterday after he dropped them off at my place."

"Okay. Well, unless we find their prints somewhere suspicious, we can probably ignore them. Today, we'll be looking over any street cams, or business cams to see if we can I.D. this guy. We ran the bullet that was in Rick's chest. Its not a match for any weapon in our database. We'll keep it on file, and see if there is anyplace else it might be on file. Has there been anyone angry with Rick? Any bad fan mail? Any threatening texts that Rick has told you about?"

Kate had to think for a minute. She'd been keeping Rick at a distance for quite a while now, so she was not in a good position to help him right now. "Uh, no. nothing that he had mentioned to me. Black Pawn would know more about any threatening mail. Being his wife, I have legal authority to grant you access to any mail he gets. But be prepared. Some of it is disturbing, not to mention weird. Just tell the owner of Black Pawn that I gave you authorization, and if he has any questions, he should call me."

"Got it. Thanks, Kate. I'm hoping we can find out who did this and put them away. Do you think it has anything to do with what happened to Rick since he went on that long book tour?" Javi asked.

"I don't know. I suppose it might, but I can't be sure. At the moment, I'm at the hospital, sitting at Rick's side."

"Well, I hope he gets better soon, Chica. I think that Lanie will probably stop by later, too. I'll try to keep you up-to-date on what we find in our investigation."

"Thanks, Javi. I'll be here for a good long time. Call me if you find anything, or if you have any questions."

"You got it." Esposito said, as he hung up the phone.

#

After about an hour more, sitting with him, Kate kept his right hand in her left hand, and rested her head on the side of the bed. It was an uncomfortable chair, and her arm was still in a cast and sling, but she stayed with him. They were husband and wife still. Even though it was true that his and her emotions might end it, hopefully they would find a way up from this, and that the current turn of events wouldn't be the cause of failure.

She fervently wished that nothing else would end Rick's life, either. Only time would tell.

The girls had only been told that Daddy had fallen down a bunch of stairs, and was being taken care of by the doctors. Lacey asked if he'd get a lollipop if he was good, but Grams and Uncle Joe didn't answer that. But the twins weren't allowed to go to the hospital to see him. The day passed slowly. Even though Rick couldn't eat, because of his unconsciousness, the nurses kindly brought Kate a dinner, as if she were a patient, so she could stay by Rick's side, and not have to leave. They were even kind enough to get her a good cup of coffee every time their shifts changed, for which she thanked them with tremendous gratitude, for their kindness. Martha and Johanna came back a bit past 10 o'clock, so Kate let them take turns sitting with Rick for a bit. That way, Kate could walk around, and stretch her legs. Joanna left after roughly 15 minutes, but Martha stayed a good hour. Kate was happy to have them visit Rick, but it worried her about the amount of press that she saw outside the hospital. Several people had already attempted to talk to her for interviews, but she always turned them down. What really concerned her were the number of questions that were yelled out to her regarding how terrible Rick was, and wasn't she ashamed about what he'd done. They even asked if she wanted him dead One or two of the papparazi even told her that they had heard some people making death threats against almost seemed like the vultures were circling. She got back to the ICU waiting room, and when she arrived, she took back over for her father, Jim. After they all left, she resumed her watch, looking after Rick, talking to him, holding his hand, and occasionally resting her head on the bed, near his.

#

About 7 PM, Kate heard her name being whispered loudly. She looked over, and saw Frank standing by the ICU ward's main door. She briefly looked over Rick, bent down to kiss his forehead, and walked over to Frank. If she had an extra set of eyes, she would have seen Frank's grimace of anger when she kissed Rick. When she got close, she noticed his right eye was very red and inflamed, and his left eye was a bit less so.

"Hey, Frank. How's the investigation going? What happened to your eyes?"

"The investigation is not so good. Anderson and Esposito have been assigned the case, because it was an attempted homicide, and it was the spouse of an active duty officer.. All I know so far, is that they talked to the manager of the condo complex, who said that some blonde, southern guy came in and was requesting the room keys for all the condos, to look for a possible drug dealer. They haven't traced it down to anyone yet. In my opinion, I'd guess that it's probably one of Rick's many crazy fan-girls. She was upset with him and tried to kill him. You know, the old 'if I can't have you, no one can' type thing. And as for my eyes, I tried a new shampoo, and it got into my eyes. It hurts like the devil pissed in it."

"I hope your eyes get better soon. As for the investigation, that doesn't seem very hopeful. Why would someone do this kind of thing? I may do this job, and Rick may write about this kind of stuff, but I never though it would EVER happen to my family."

Frank stepped in closer to Kate. He tried to put an arm over her shoulders to draw her close to him, but Kate deftly changed the subject, and moved a bit towards the ICU main door. "I'm very worried about Rick. If he dies, the girls would be heart-broken. That would be do difficult on them."

"I'm so sorry, Kate. It's just so unfair what happened to you. Rick's philandering, your hard work, your getting hurt on the job, your girls that you have to take care of. All of this stuff you do, and Rick does nothing to help you. It's not right." Frank stepped near Kate, and took her hand, lightly rubbing a thumb over her knuckles.

"That's not true! Rick does a lot of stuff. He makes more than enough money to house us, keep us safe, help school the girls." Kate pulled her hand from Frank, and rubbed her right upper arm, because it was hurting from the injury from the day before.

Frank interjected. "It doesn't seem he did such a good job of keeping you or him safe." Frank then leaned over and kissed Kate's temple. Kate couldn't stop him from doing that.

"Rick's had plenty of weird fans before. But no one has ever gone to this level before. Ever! He takes good care of the girls. They are so smart because he teaches them to read, and how to figure things out for themselves. When Rick is home, if I need something, he gets it for me. Heck, sometimes even when he's NOT there. My last birthday, I had to work that day. He had a dozen red roses and a small birthday cake sent to me at the station. And if I need a special dinner, or a foot massage, he does that for me. He is not a failure. I realize you don't like him very much. But I also know that I may have acted too hastily in blaming him myself. Not only that, but he wasn't responsible for my injuries. I was on the job, and you were there. Why didn't you stop to check on me, instead of running after that suspect?"

"What? I didn't even see you there. I was in hot pursuit. And now you forgive him?" Frank said, surprised.

"Let's just say that I will wait for the evidence he shows me, and I'll examine it with an open mind."

"Well, okay, maybe you're right. Is Rick okay for now? How are his machines? Is everything working correctly? Can we go take a look, or could you describe them to me?"

Kate looked down at her watch. "Their shift change is at 7:30, that's in 10 more minutes. There's not supposed to be more than one person with him, but if we make it quick, I can show you what they have him hooked up to. Come on."

They quietly walked to Rick's curtained off area, and Kate whispered. "They'll probably have him here for at least three or four days, they say. After that, it depends on when he wakes up. We are all hoping it will be soon, obviously."

Frank nodded. Then he asked more questions. "Kate? What are all these machines he's hooked up to?"

"He's got a chest tube, that's the big one. It helps inflate his lung. That's the important one. The smaller one provides oxygen. The other sensors just keep tabs on him, and the IV's mostly just keep him in pain meds, at least for now. The last one here is something they call an ART tube, and it's used to directly sense his blood pressure. It's actually inserted directly into his main vein in his arm."

"Well, thanks for the nickel tour. I don't want to get you in trouble. I'll see you tomorrow, okay? You have a great day, and a restful night. I hope you can get home, and sleep in a bed. It'll be much more relaxing for you, rather than sleeping on these hard plastic chairs."

"It's not that bad. But no, I'll be staying here, overnight. Just like last night. You take care, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay. G'Night, Kate." Frank leaned over to give her a kiss, but at the last second, she turned her head, so he only kissed her cheek.

"Night, Frank." And Kate walked over to Rick, grasped his hand, and started to sit down.

As Frank was walking away, there was a murderous glare on his face. 'Don't worry, Kate' he said to himself, 'Your hubby won't be around by morning. I'll see to that. And your helpful talk about his machines? That'll make my job that much easier.'

Later that evening, after the shift change brings her a dinner and another wonderful cup of coffee, Kate got caught up in the past. She recalled the time that Kate had been doing fitness training to complete her junior detective fitness elective. Kate was always an avid runner, so when Rick told her that he would bring the girls along with her as she ran, she didn't believe that he was serious. But then, he showed up with a modified golf cart. He said he'd already checked the Central Park regulations, and that it was allowed on the jogging paths. He had even gone so far as to install two child seats in it, with rear facing seats. That way, he could drive along, in front of Kate (clearing the way, he said) and the girls could watch and talk to Mommy, as she ran. And it worked out pretty well! At least until Rick started turning on all the different accessories he'd added to the cart. Things like heavy duty cooling fans, like Air Conditioning in an enclosed car, but the cart wasn't enclosed. And all the flashing lights he'd installed on the cart, to be able to spell out different messages like: RUN MOMMY RUN! Or else, WE'RE FASTER THAN YOU! Or the worst, YOU'RE SO SLOW! Not to mention the different kinds of horn sounds. It was a very cool cart, but all these electronic gadgets meant it used up the cart battery very fast, and the second time he used it, he ran out of power, and even though he tried to push it, he couldn't get very far. But the worst (and best) part of it was when he had to leave it in the park, on the jogging path, and go arrange to get a charger. When he got back to it, someone had taken everything off it, and all that was left was the framework, and the steering wheel. The seats, the wheels, the horns, the lights. All gone. As much as Kate cried for his loss, she laughed and laughed with the girls. Lacey had said "Daddy's the best Goff Car driver. Ever!" Alexis just said. "Do it again, Daddy!" And Rick DID think about it. But when he researched to get a better battery, the only one he could get was used by NASA for their Mars and Moon rovers, and he couldn't qualify to get one of them. Not even through some of his "guys" that he knew.

Then, however, she remembered their fifth Wedding anniversary. Rick had arranged for Jim and Johanna to take the girls for one week, and Martha and Joe to take a turn for the next week. Then, they flew to Paris, and spent the whole two weeks just enjoying themselves in the city and surrounding area. She'd never known all the beauty, tastes, smells, and wonderful people that there were. Rick was perfect. Every dinner they went on was so romantic. He took care of her needs, and he challenged her as well. They rode bikes around the entire city. They sampled wines at three different wineries. It was like a dream. He gave her massages, luxurious baths, fabulous foods, and loving companionship that never pushed, but only engaged her mind, her heart, and her soul. They hadn't had the chance for a honeymoon when they were first married, but this? This was a super honeymoon! With interest!

After reminiscing for almost two hours, Kate was crying when she realized how much she had taken for granted with Rick. How could she have forgotten all the things that he'd done for her, done for the girls? How could she have doubted him? It didn't seem fair to him. But then she thought of the things she'd heard of through the media. She resolved to find out the truth, and if there were fabrications that weren't his fault, she'd make them pay!

In addition to the chair that Kate sits in at Rick's side, there is also a small cot that she was provided for her in the room with Rick so that she could be with him at all times. So, at last, Kate had gotten tired again. She started to lay her head down on Rick's bed, next to Rick. He'd only been out of surgery almost 24 hours ago, and Rick hadn't woken up yet. 'That's not unusual' she remembered what the head nurse had told her. 'But what IS unusual is that I've waited such a long time to go to the bathroom. I think I'll go now, and be back in about 10 minutes. That way, I can sleep along with Rick until morning. That way we can see what the next day will bring.' She got up, and headed for the Ladies Room.

#

As soon as Kate had left the ICU, a dark coated figure, with a balaclava (covered full face, with an narrow oval for the eyes) mask on, and sunglasses came into the ICU. The figure was also wearing purple evidence gloves. The figure quickly moved to Rick's left side, and unplugged the ART line that was feeding into his lower arm's radial artery He just disconnected it from the short tube coming out of the arm. Immediately, blood started coming out of the tube, and a few drops spattered on his dark coat. The figure quickly put Rick's arm down, and covered it with the blanket, making sure Rick's inside of the arm was facing into his body, so that the blood would soak down, and not up into the blanket. Next, the figure disconnected his chest tube from the machine at Rick's left side. A slight rush of air blew out of it, until it finally stopped. Lastly, the figure pushed their hands down onto the left side of his chest, to deflate it as much as possible. More air rushed out, until no more came out. All this had taken barely three minutes. The figure rushed out the door that they had come in from.

#

Kate had completed her bathroom tasks, and was heading back to ICU. As she was approaching, she heard what sounded like faint beeping. As she got closer, she realized the beeping was actually several machines making different beeping and alarm sounds that were coming from the machines next to Rick. Just as she got to his bed, a nurse came running up. It was one of the new nurses, and the nurse checked things out and found Rick's chest tube had been disconnected. She quickly reattached it, and then checked the other machines. By this point, his blood pressure was down a considerable amount. The girl looked around frantically, checking the machines and they all looked correct, so she pressed the CALL button, and told Kate she'd need to leave the ICU until they had Rick stabilized.

Kate walked back to the ICU main doors, and watched them from a distance. Another nurse showed up, and then the head nurse showed up. They seemed to be confused for a very brief moment until they pulled his blanket down and Kate saw all the blood. She was about to run back there when the head nurse called for numerous units of O+ blood, and they started feeding them into Rick, one after another. Eventually, she came over to Kate.

"Mrs. Castle? I just wanted to give you an update about your husband. As you might have seen, we found that he was bleeding out very badly. He was about to go into a Class IV Hemorrhage, and if he hadn't been in the ICU, he would surely have died." When she tells Kate this, Kate is shocked to hear it. She'd been away from him for just a short time.

The head nurse continues. "Mrs. Castle? Can you tell me what happened?"

"I was just sitting there with Rick, and I was getting very tired. I felt the need to go to the rest room. I left, finished things, and was on my way back when I heard all the beeping and alarms. Why do you ask?" Kate asked, worried.

"Well, judging by what we found, either your husband woke up from his coma, unplugged his chest and ART tubes and fell back into a coma, or…" she trailed off, a grim look on her face.

"Or what!?" Kate asked, almost in cop interrogating mode.

"Or someone came in here while you were gone and tried to kill Mr. Castle."

It took about an hour for the nurses to be confident that Rick was stable again. They said he'd lost about four, maybe five pints of blood. If they hadn't caught it, he would have been dead in about 10 more minutes. Kate thanked them profusely. She then sat down next to Rick. She immediately took out her phone and called the precinct. She got in touch with the night shift, and reported the attempt on Rick's life. They would document it, and get in touch with Anderson and Esposito. After that, Kate called Captain Montgomery. She explained the situation to him and he agreed to send a pair of Uni's over to stand guard outside the ICU, keeping an eye on Rick.

The last call that Kate made was to the hospital security department. She explained to them what had just occurred, and gave them the name of the head nurse for corroboration. She told them that, if need be, she'd get a warrant to examine the hospital camera security footage, and they readily agreed that if she could do that, they would help facilitate things for her. Kate then called Montgomery back one more time, and he arranged to get a warrant for her that was to be given to one of the officers headed there to stand guard over Rick. Kate told them that she'd be there in about 30 minutes, as soon as the uniformed officers got there to watch over Rick and deliver it to her. Even though Kate didn't need to call them, she did call Javier, and asked him to come down to the hospital. That way, he could examine the security footage while Kate had to be with Rick. Javier agreed, and said he'd contact Anderson with the update.

When the two officers showed up, she had one sit near Rick, and the other outside the main door going into the ICU. Kate thanked them for doing this, gave them her direct number for any questions or problems, and then headed off.

When Kate got to the security office, she found that not only was there a station set up for her, but there was also a tech there to help her with anything she might need. Knowing that helped relieve a small bit of the tension that Kate was feeling. They dove into the footage, starting with ICU and the surrounding ways in.

Very early on, they have been viewing the hallways leading to the ICU, and they found a doorway that normally only the doctors use. All Kate can see is a tall person, probably a man, with a hat, sunglasses, and bent over to hide their face. They are seen going into Rick's bed area, and coming back out, about seven minutes before the nurse goes in. But they can't see his face. They do get one shot of the face, but they see the person is wearing a mask to cover his face. Kate requests that the hospital turn over all their security tapes for that night to the precinct, so that they can look things over and try to find the mystery man at some earlier or later point elsewhere in the hospital.

Later that morning after the attempt on Rick's life in the ICU, Kate had Martha show up, and wait with Rick, while Kate went to the Precinct. But when Kate left the hospital to go to the 12th Precinct, several reporters yelled out questions to her asking if she could confirm an attack on Rick. A few others asked if someone wanted him dead. But the most shocking was a very nicely dressed woman who yelled out a question asking if Kate had tried to kill her husband because of what he'd done with making the sex-tape. When Kate heard that, she almost felt that it was beyond her to try to keep her face neutral, even though she tried her hardest and didn't say anything.

When she got there, she goes straight to Montgomery's office.

"Captain? I'd like to volunteer to assist on the attempts on Rick's life. You won't find anyone more motivated than me."

"Kate, you know it doesn't work that way. You're related to the victim, even though he survived. I can't allow you to work the case. Besides, I've already got Anderson and Esposito on it. It doesen't get much better than that."

"Sir, I am urging you to reconsider. I know a lot about Rick and his life. I'm sure I could provide good background and insight into possible suspects. Please put me on the case."

"It's not happening, Kate. You're his wife. Any suspect you found could get the case thrown out due to a conflict of interest. I'm not letting you lose this case."

Kate is stuck trying to think of some way that she could help. After a moment of thinking goes by, she asks. "Well what about if I just observe. I won't do any interrogations, I won't go out into the field. I will just talk with Anderson and Javi, and provide information to them. Would THAT be okay?"

Montgomery thinks about it as well. After a brief pause, he speaks. "All right. You can observe what they do, and talk to them when there aren't any suspects around. But nothing more. Got it?" He gives her his own attempt of a death glare, but it has little effect on Kate.

"Yes, sir. I understand completely. Permission to talk to my team?"

Montgomery gives her a tired nod, and she's out the door. She heads straight for Esposito, who ushers her into the tech room. She finds them going over more footage from the hospital.

Kate calls Martha at regular intervals, to check in on Rick. Whether Rick did the sex-tape or not, Kate seems to have had an epiphany, that she couldn't live without Rick. Martha has no news.

Esposito and Kate have a few clips of the mystery man walking at places in the hospital, and they saw him go into a men's room. They look before that, for anyone that might be the same height, or same build, but there were numerous men that could match him, more or less. They kept watching that particular security footage. However, even though they went back a whole hour, there was no footage of anyone of the same build going into the men's room.

Esposito suggested to her that he'd need to go check the men's room for any evidence. He told Kate that she couldn't come with him. Kate begrudgingly agrees. He left the precinct, and Kate quickly leaves as well and catches a cab over to Mount Sinai. Although she did her best to ignore, and try to get into the hospital as quickly as she could, a lost of the paparazzi and reporters took note of her and got a lot of pictures. She was sure she'd be on the evening news that night.

She went directly to see Martha, who told her that nothing new has happened. She then quickly rushes over to the men's room that Esposito was examining.

When she got there, she knocked on the door and Javier came out. "Did you find anything, Espo?" She asked.

"No. They had emptied the trash about 3 hours ago. Anderson went over to the main disposal area for the hospital. He hasn't called back yet."

"Damn! Was there any evidence at all?"

"There is a window that goes outside, and it was unlocked. It was unlatched. It's possible the suspect could have crawled in, and back out through the window. There was a dumpster just outside the window about four feet down. Maybe Anderson might have more luck."

They left the men's room, and headed for the disposal area. When they got there, they found Anderson with about six Uni's going through the trash. Even though Kate was there, they wouldn't let her help, in order to avoid compromising the investigation. About half an hour later, Esposito found a waste cart with the trash from that part of the hospital. Inside it, they located the coat, mask, and sunglasses. They turned it all over to CSI and waited for their findings. In the meantime, Kate went back to the ICU.

It took a few hours, but eventually Anderson got a call back indicating that they found droplets of Rick's blood on the outside of the coat, and a few very smudged prints on the sunglasses, but there was nothing to indicate who was wearing them.

It took about an hour for the nurses to be confident that Rick was stable again. They said he'd lost about four, maybe five pints of blood. If they hadn't caught it, he would have been dead in about 10 more minutes. Kate thanked them profusely. She then sat down next to Rick. She immediately took out her phone and called the precinct. She got in touch with the night shift, and reported the attempt on Rick's life. They would document it, and get in touch with Anderson and Esposito. After that, Kate called Captain Montgomery. She explained the situation to him and he agreed to send a pair of Uni's over to stand guard outside the ICU, keeping an eye on Rick.

The last call that Kate made was to the hospital security department. She explained to them what had just occurred, and gave them the name of the head nurse for corroboration. She told them that, if need be, she'd get a warrant to examine the hospital camera security footage, and they readily agreed that if she could do that, they would help facilitate things for her. Kate then called Montgomery back one more time, and he arranged to get a warrant for her that was to be given to one of the officers headed there to stand guard over Rick. Kate told them that she'd be there in about 30 minutes, as soon as the uniformed officers got there to watch over Rick and deliver it to her. Even though Kate didn't need to call them, she did call Javier, and asked him to come down to the hospital. That way, he could examine the security footage while Kate had to be with Rick. Javier agreed, and said he'd contact Anderson with the update.

When the two officers showed up, she had one sit near Rick, and the other outside the main door going into the ICU. Kate thanked them for doing this, gave them her direct number for any questions or problems, and then headed off.

When Kate got to the security office, she found that not only was there a station set up for her, but there was also a tech there to help her with anything she might need. Knowing that helped relieve a small bit of the tension that Kate was feeling. They dove into the footage, starting with ICU and the surrounding ways in.

Very early on, they have been viewing the hallways leading to the ICU, and they found a doorway that normally only the doctors use. All Kate can see is a tall person, probably a man, with a hat, sunglasses, and bent over to hide their face. They are seen going into Rick's bed area, and coming back out, about seven minutes before the nurse goes in. But they can't see his face. They do get one shot of the face, but they see the person is wearing a mask to cover his face. Kate requests that the hospital turn over all their security tapes for that night to the precinct, so that they can look things over and try to find the mystery man at some earlier or later point elsewhere in the hospital.

Later that morning after the attempt on Rick's life in the ICU, Kate had Martha show up, and wait with Rick, while Kate went to the Precinct. But when Kate left the hospital to go to the 12th Precinct, several reporters yelled out questions to her asking if she could confirm an attack on Rick. A few others asked if someone wanted him dead. But the most shocking was a very nicely dressed woman who yelled out a question asking if Kate had tried to kill her husband because of what he'd done with making the sex-tape. When Kate heard that, she almost felt that it was beyond her to try to keep her face neutral, even though she tried her hardest and didn't say anything.

When she got there, she goes straight to Montgomery's office.

"Captain? I'd like to volunteer to assist on the attempts on Rick's life. You won't find anyone more motivated than me."

"Kate, you know it doesn't work that way. You're related to the victim, even though he survived. I can't allow you to work the case. Besides, I've already got Anderson and Esposito on it. It doesen't get much better than that."

"Sir, I am urging you to reconsider. I know a lot about Rick and his life. I'm sure I could provide good background and insight into possible suspects. Please put me on the case."

"It's not happening, Kate. You're his wife. Any suspect you found could get the case thrown out due to a conflict of interest. I'm not letting you lose this case."

Kate is stuck trying to think of some way that she could help. After a moment of thinking goes by, she asks. "Well what about if I just observe. I won't do any interrogations, I won't go out into the field. I will just talk with Anderson and Javi, and provide information to them. Would THAT be okay?"

Montgomery thinks about it as well. After a brief pause, he speaks. "All right. You can observe what they do, and talk to them when there aren't any suspects around. But nothing more. Got it?" He gives her his own attempt of a death glare, but it has little effect on Kate.

"Yes, sir. I understand completely. Permission to talk to my team?"

Montgomery gives her a tired nod, and she's out the door. She heads straight for Esposito, who ushers her into the tech room. She finds them going over more footage from the hospital.

Kate calls Martha at regular intervals, to check in on Rick. Whether Rick did the sex-tape or not, Kate seems to have had an epiphany, that she couldn't live without Rick. Martha has no news.

Esposito and Kate have a few clips of the mystery man walking at places in the hospital, and they saw him go into a men's room. They look before that, for anyone that might be the same height, or same build, but there were numerous men that could match him, more or less. They kept watching that particular security footage. However, even though they went back a whole hour, there was no footage of anyone of the same build going into the men's room.

Esposito suggested to her that he'd need to go check the men's room for any evidence. He told Kate that she couldn't come with him. Kate begrudgingly agrees. He left the precinct, and Kate quickly leaves as well and catches a cab over to Mount Sinai. Although she did her best to ignore, and try to get into the hospital as quickly as she could, a lost of the paparazzi and reporters took note of her and got a lot of pictures. She was sure she'd be on the evening news that night.

She went directly to see Martha, who told her that nothing new has happened. She then quickly rushes over to the men's room that Esposito was examining.

When she got there, she knocked on the door and Javier came out. "Did you find anything, Espo?" She asked.

"No. They had emptied the trash about 3 hours ago. Anderson went over to the main disposal area for the hospital. He hasn't called back yet."

"Damn! Was there any evidence at all?"

"There is a window that goes outside, and it was unlocked. It was unlatched. It's possible the suspect could have crawled in, and back out through the window. There was a dumpster just outside the window about four feet down. Maybe Anderson might have more luck."

They left the men's room, and headed for the disposal area. When they got there, they found Anderson with about six Uni's going through the trash. Even though Kate was there, they wouldn't let her help, in order to avoid compromising the investigation. About half an hour later, Esposito found a waste cart with the trash from that part of the hospital. Inside it, they located the coat, mask, and sunglasses. They turned it all over to CSI and waited for their findings. In the meantime, Kate went back to the ICU.

It took a few hours, but eventually Anderson got a call back indicating that they found droplets of Rick's blood on the outside of the coat, and a few very smudged prints on the sunglasses, but there was nothing to indicate who was wearing them.

#


	17. Chapter 17

The first thing Kate did was to get the attention of one of the Uniformed officers and tell him that she was heading to the precinct. He'd take over watching over Rick for the time being. Then, Kate quickly got her phone out and made a call.

"Esposito." She heard.

"Javi? I've just found a break in the case. I need to meet you at the station. I think I've found some evidence from when Rick was shot."

"Okay, Beckett. I'll be here. See you soon." He told her.

#

After a brief struggle to get out of the hospital unnoticed, she found that the best solution was to talk to Martha. She told Kate that she'd send a car for Kate and that it would arrive at the VIP entrance in about 15 minutes. Kate was very surprised at that idea. Mostly because she didn't think of it herself. Earlier, she and Rick had used limos and town cars for different events, but she never thought of using it for this. It worked perfectly. No one saw her leave.

When Kate arrived, she told the driver she'd call if she needed another ride. After that, she went straight into the precinct and right into the tech room, dragging Esposito with her. They hooked up the voice recorder and downloaded the last sound file from two days earlier. Once that was done, they listened to it while it played back. It started off with Rick speculating on some outrageous ideas for the story until they heard him get up and walk somewhere in the house.

"Judging from the sound, it seems like Rick is talking about making some coffee. That's the sound of a coffee grinder." Kate mentioned, pausing the playback.

"So where did this come from, Beckett?" Javier asks her.

"Rick has always recorded ideas for his books verbally. He transfers these onto his computer, and he's been doing that for quite a few years now. He must have been talking things thru about how the book was going to progress. But I think he got interrupted.

After that, they resumed the playback, and they heard Rick ask, "What the hell are you doing here?" This got Kate and Esposito's attention. They then heard Detective Daniels voice talking back to Rick and telling him he needed to sign the divorce papers.

At first, Kate was shocked. She couldn't believe that Frank would go to Rick's condo. But as she listened, she got more and more angry, and more and more ashamed at herself for even spending time with Frank.

But then, Frank started talking about how much better it would be if Rick *didn't* sign them. That Frank would kill him, and try to play it off like a crazed fan-girl was responsible.

At this point, Esposito started to get a bit embarrassed at the intentions that Frank laid out for his future with Kate, and what he planned on doing to her and with her. But he knew that Kate couldn't officially act. HE was the officer on the case, and he had to document this evidence, and be able to swear to it. So he kept his face looking away from Kate until they heard Rick ask Frank if he wanted a cup of coffee.

When she heard that, Kate almost spat. She couldn't imagine why in hell Rick would offer his would-be killer a cup of coffee. But then, they heard a shout followed by the sound of a plastic cup hitting the floor, and a door slamming. Once they heard that, they then heard Daniels muffled swearing at Rick and promising painful death treats for him, including shooting off certain particular body parts while Rick was still alive. After that, they heard a piece of furniture being moved, and then another door being slammed and then locked.

Not a moment later, they heard a door being bashed in. They heard what seemed to be something small metal scraping sound, and Rick's cursing. Just then, there was a massive bash on a door nearby. Very shortly after that, there were two quick gunshots and then the door burst open. Right about the same time, they heard a whoosh, followed by the sounds of the city. They heard what must have been Rick grunting out a heavy breath, followed closely by another gunshot, with a sharp cry of pain right afterward. Kate started crying quietly to herself. Kate feared that she knew what that gunshot was. It was the first shot, into Rick's upper arm, and Kate unconsciously grabbed her right upper arm with her left hand.

Not a second after that, they heard a body thump to the ground, and with a painful cry, they then heard more heavy breathing and footsteps running. The footsteps seemed to be going for a good 15 seconds, and then they heard it. Another gunshot. Rick wheezed out a gurgle of intense pain, and Kate couldn't help but wince and cringe when she realized that this was the upper chest shot that Rick had received. Kate couldn't help herself, and she cried out in fear at what Rick had been going through.

There were unsteady shuffling steps, and then there was very breathy wheezing and grunting as Rick was apparently still trying to maintain his footing and STILL trying to get farther away from his attacker. While this was going on, the sounds of a city street were getting steadily louder as Rick's painful grunting and gasping continued painstakingly, second by second.

Just as the sounds of the city were getting loud enough that it felt they were right next to it, there was one last gunshot. But this time, there was no sound of pain or gasping from Rick only that of his body hitting the ground and then nothing further from Rick. Kate crumpled in on herself at this absence of sound from Rick. Even though she'd been in the hospital with Rick only three hours ago, and this was nearly two days ago, she still felt the dread of his death. She let go of her right arm, and instead grabbed Esposito's hand, squeezing it tightly.

There were the sounds of pedestrians around him, and there was the voice of a young girl who was shouting for someone to call 9-1-1. People were asking who it was, and if he had a gun on him. After that, they could hear the cops arrive and finally, the EMT's.

Esposito listened further on the tape, but there were only the voices and sounds of the EMT's working to save Rick's life, and then his arrival at the hospital when his clothing and possessions were removed from him and put away.

From the sound of Kate's sobbing, Esposito turned to her and hugged her. "I'm sorry, chica, for having you listen to that. We know it was Daniels now. I'm going to put an APB out on him. Would you like to sit here by yourself? I can give you some time to do that." Javier leaned back from Kate and looked at her. She was looking down at her hands in her lap. Esposito picked up the voice recorder, documented it as evidence, and then walked out with it, looking back at Kate one last time as he said. "Beckett? He needs you. I'd go and stay with him if I were you."

Esposito walked out the door, closing it after him.

Kate sat there for a few more minutes. She couldn't believe that Frank had done that, or that he thought he could do the things he described. She shivered in disgust when she remembered what he'd said to Rick. "I'm going to spread her out on the bed, and screw her…" She couldn't even think about it. Rick would never do that. And yet… she thought he was willing to do that with other women. She shouldn't have doubted him. He must hate her, after she turned her back on him for so long and didn't believe him when he told her that he hadn't been responsible for everything she accused him of. Everything she believed he done.

Even though she didn't feel she deserved him, she felt that if anyone would need to protect him from Detective Daniels, she needed to do it. And if she were somehow lucky enough to be able to confront Frank, she is sure to be the one to cuff him and arrest him for his attempted murder. Possibly attempted twice. She left the precinct, heading for Mount Sinai Hospital.

Esposito had gone to inform Captain Montgomery about the break in the case. Montgomery called the Organized Crime lead and informed him about Detective Daniels. Roy knew that anytime a cop committed a felony, it risked previous cases being overturned if the defense found out about it. This was going to be hell on OCCB.

Montgomery also asked if they had heard from Frank in the last 12 hours, but they hadn't, and he hadn't called to check in, either. Roy finished updating them on the ongoing investigation and instructed them to let him know if Daniels location became available.

Anderson asked Esposito. "Do you know what bars Detective Daniels hangs out at? Or any other place he frequents?"

"I know of a couple places he'd likely go to," Esposito answered him.

"All right. Get your vest. We're going to stop by those spots, and see if we can't get lucky." Anderson said, as he turned and headed for the elevator,

They head out and stop by the first of the four possibilities. They drive around the area for a few minutes, looking for his personal car, but they don't see it. Anderson tells Esposito to go to the back of the building by the rear exit. He'll go to the front and attempt to flush Frank out the back. "Make sure you're ready, Esposito. He's a cop, and I figure he'll have good instincts, just like we do. Be prepared for the unexpected. Anderson goes in the front and ends up clearing the building. The bartender hadn't seen Daniels there in at least two days.

They then went to the second, third, and fourth places. Each time, same results. No Daniels. Anderson calls to report into Montgomery. While they are talking, Roy recommends that Anderson should call the Organized Crime department.

Anderson does so. He gets Detective Daniels boss on the phone who tells them of two other locations that Frank likes to go. Esposito drives them both over there, and after scoping out the surrounding streets, they don't see his car, so they park and go inside, But this time, both Anderson and Esposito go in the front door. Although they enter carefully and don't see Daniels. However, Frank comes out of the men's room, tucking his shirt in. Because Frank is slightly bent over doing that, they don't recognize him at first. But Frank recognizes them. He knows that they are supposed to be on the job, so they wouldn't be out drinking. He has a bad feeling that they might know it was him that tried to kill Rick.

He tries to move back into the men's room, and just before the door closes, Esposito see's him. "Daniels! NYPD! SHOW ME YOUR HANDS!" But Frank ducks out of sight and locks the door. He runs to the bathroom window and clambers out while Esposito is banging on the door. Just as Frank gets out of the window, Esposito kicks in the door and see's Frank's head ducking away. Esposito went out the same window. But Anderson chose to run out the back door of the bar, as fast as he can. He caught sight of Frank running for a car. Frank starts it and tries to run over Anderson. Anderson fires twice at Frank before he had to dive out of the way, winging Frank the shoulder, but Frank keeps driving, even though he hit a dumpster on the way out.

Anderson runs for the car, yelling for Esposito to follow him. Esposito had run down along the side of the bar to Anderson's car and jumps in. They peel out, trying to catch up to Frank.

Esposito got on the radio. "One Lincoln Thirty Two to Dispatch. We are in pursuit of suspect Frank Daniels. We have just left Ninth and Tennyson, heading south on Ninth. The suspect is considered armed and dangerous. He is driving a blue Crown Victoria with police lights on. Apprehend if possible. Be aware that suspect is able to listen in on this conversation."

Because of their police lights being on, Frank is able to make good time when a lot of people pull over and slow down or stop to get out of the way. Despite that, there are a number of close calls, where Daniels barely avoids hitting pedestrians or cars. At one point, Montgomery calls Esposito.

"Detective Esposito. This is to inform you that we are setting up a road block about four miles ahead of you. Be prepared to stop. We will have puncture strips laid out to disable his car. Watch out for it yourselves. Got it?"

"Yes, Captain. We'll be ready." Esposito hangs up his phone and relates the information to Anderson. They'll be ready.

They are still speeding down the street, and it looks like things are going to work out. Several cross streets have had cop cars blocking access, and Esposito looks over to Anderson with a confident smile. Anderson just looks back with a grimace.

About half a mile before the blockage point, Daniels can see the flashing lights of the waiting cars. With an amazing reaction time, he pulls into a side alley, speeding down it in an attempt to get away. Anderson follows closely, trying to make up the distance he'd lost. Frank is about half the width of the block ahead of them, when they can see the street about a quarter mile ahead of them. There is the cab of a semi-tractor trailer starting to go by on the street at the end of the alley.

Unfortunately, Daniels is much less than a quarter mile away. He's only about 50 yards away. With his tires screeching, the truck pulls in front of him and from Anderson and Esposito/s point of view, the top of Frank's car is torn off, but his car still passes through and continues on down the alley on the other side of the street. By the time that Anderson stops at the end of the alley, the semi has stopped as well, blocking the alley. Esposito and Anderson quickly jump out and work their way around the back of the semi, to look down the alley.

At first, they don't see Frank's car. They see the top of the car, laying on the street just before it would have gone under the truck. But down the alley on the other side of the street, it looks empty… until they look a bit closer. About 100 feet into the alley, they can see what looks like an opening to the left side, and they run down to it.

The height of the bottom of the semi seems to have been just right. The car seems mostly okay. It's just been turned into a convertible. No windows, no roof. The problem is, the same thing has happened to Frank, as well. He has to top either. Only his torso and lower is still in the car. There is a blood trail down the left side of the car from the drivers seat, going straight back, in a relatively straight line. But there is no head.

Esposito looks over to Anderson. "Well, I don't want to go back to where his roof was. Do you want to Ro-Sham-Bo it? Loser has to go and verify it?"

Sadly for him, Esposito loses. In the meantime, Anderson goes back to their car to notify Dispatch. "Dispatch. This is One-Lincoln-Twenty Five. We are at the scene of an accident at an alley off … Hernandez and Hughes. Please send an ME, we wish to report Officer Down, the suspect has died."

#

Kate has been waiting by Rick's side. It had been a few hours now. Martha showed up again, and she asked Kate if she could sit by Rick's side for a bit. Kate reluctantly agreed. She wanted to stay with Rick, but she needed some food and some coffee, so she left Rick in the care of his mother. Still, Kate doesn't take very long. She is back in about 10 minutes. She relieves Martha, who says she'll wait with Jim, Joanna, and Rick's brother Joe, in the waiting room.

About two hours later, Kate gets a call. It's from the 12th Precinct.

"Beckett," She says.

"Detective Beckett, this is Captain Montgomery. I wanted to call and inform you that we have found Detective Daniels."

"You did? Will I have to testify against him? Will Rick?" She asked him.

"No. That won't be necessary. He fled before he could be apprehended in another police car, and in the chase, he was killed in an automobile accident. There will be no need for a trial."

"Dead? Did anyone get to question him at all? Were they able to find the gun that he shot Rick with?"

"Yes, they found the gun at his apartment. It's not his official piece, so we're not sure where he got it from, but the ballistics match. They also found the master key card for Rick's condominium. Plus, we had some court sessions recorded where he had to speak, and the CSI lab was able to match his voice on Rick's voice recorder to his court sessions with about a 97% degree of accuracy. They're sure it was Daniels. You should be able to rest easy, Kate."

"Thank you, Captain."

"However, we could use you down here for a statement soon. Can you spare an hour?"

"Yeah. I can be there in less than half an hour. I'll see you then, sir."

"See you later, Beckett."

Kate walked out to the waiting room, to find Martha and ask her if she could sit with Rick while Kate went to the station. Martha was quite happy to sit with her son.

#

Meanwhile, back in ICU, Rick regained consciousness. He was still feeling very woozy, but he looked around. The first thing he wondered was where he was, but then he saw the machines near his bedside and the tubes and realized he must be in the hospital. He wondered what city he was in. Was it Vegas? Denver? Judging by what his memory was struggling to tell him, he was probably still on the book tour, and Kate wasn't very happy with him. No one was there. It occurred to him that nobody felt it worthwhile being here for him. Kate wasn't here. His daughters weren't here. Even his brother Joe, or his mother weren't here. Had he dropped so far down in his life that nobody cared about him anymore? But he realized. who could blame them, after all? Maybe that was why he was in the hospital. Had he tried to kill himself? He had lost the love of his life, he thought to himself as his body forced him back into unconsciousness.

#

His mother worked her way back to Rick's bed and sat there waiting for Kate. She hoped her son would wake up. He'd been through so much, she hoped he didn't lose his family.

Kate showed up at the precinct, and Anderson and Esposito took her to the questioning lounge. They asked her a lot of embarrassing questions, and things that made her feel ashamed. But they had to document all of her encounters with Frank so that the case was as buttoned up as possible. Her team had a very good closure rate, and this was part of the reason. It turned out to be more than the hour that Montgomery had mentioned, but he was only off by about 45 minutes. By the time she got back to the hospital, she'd only been gone for a little more than two hours. She relieved Martha and told her that she would keep everyone informed about anything that happened.

Kate sat there until about 10 PM, and then she used the cot that the nurses had provided for her. It wasn't a very big or very comfortable cot, but it was near Rick. She'd take it. Still, she slept fitfully, and woke up twice in the middle of the night, when she thought she heard Rick moving in his bed. Each time she got up, but he hadn't seemed to have moved at all. She laid back down, and tried to get more sleep.

When 7 AM finally rolled around, the next shift had brought her a cup of coffee. She asked the nurse how things were going for Rick.

"Well, according to the readings here, it looks like he might have gained consciousness for a moment or two last night. Did he say anything?"

"No. I thought he'd moved around, but it didn't seem so."

"Don't worry. The fact that his mind is doing something, even a little something is a good sign. I'd recommend you talk to him more today. If we're lucky, maybe he'll wake up!"

Kate thanked the girl and moved over to the chair by Rick's bed. She reached out again and took his right hand with her left hand, holding it carefully.

"Rick? Can you hear me? If you can, I hope you can wake up. I miss you so much. I made a big mistake, and I only hope you can forgive me. Please, Rick. Your mom is here, my mom and dad are here. We're all just waiting for you to come back to us. To the girls. To me."

#

Rick was dreaming. In his dream, he wasn't married to Kate anymore. She was now married to Frank. He wasn't writing anymore. Kate had the twins and three younger boys. They all looked exactly like Frank. He could also see that Kate was pregnant, too. She reached for Frank and drew him to her. He saw her give him a passionate kiss, while, at the same time, Frank was fondling her as they stood up on stage. He realized that he was sitting in a theater, and Kate and Frank and their kids were onstage. The audience was raving for them. But Rick could see that Frank was looking right at him, with an arrogant look on his face. He then turned to the audience and announced. "Thank you all so much for making us so popular and rich. Thank God that my darling wife was able to get rid of that perverted dead-beat ex-husband. He was such a loser."

Everyone in the audience started yelling out "LOSER! LOSER!" Then Frank led Kate to the back of the stage where there was a door. He opened it and everyone could see a huge bed inside the room, and there were several young scantily clad women in there waiting for Frank and Kate. When Rick looked at them, he could see that two of them were Gina and Megan.

Rick cried out. "NO! Don't leave me! Please don't leave me! I don't want them! I want you! Only you." Rick yelled out. He now seemed to be flying away from them, and as much as he tried, he couldn't get back to Kate and the girls. Alexis! Lacey! I'm your father, don't you remember? But the girls just turned away from him. They started to play with the three boys.

#

Kate was holding Rick's hand, and watching him closely. He was distraught and unhappy. He seemed to be mumbling. She was able to make out the names of their daughters, but not much else. Rick didn't mention her own name. He wasn't thinking about her. She wasn't on his mind anymore. She felt the sadness coming over her. But she knew that no matter what, their girls still needed their daddy. She had to try to bring him back to them.

"Rick? Can you hear me? You're having a bad dream, a nightmare. Can you wake up? Please wake up for me, babe. The girls need you." I need you, she thought to herself.

Rick's mumbling seemed to take on a bit more clarity. "Alexis? Lacey? Where are you? Don't go with those boys!"

Kate was rather confused when she heard that, but she didn't stop. "Rick? Please listen to me. I'm here, it's Kate. I need you to come back to me. Wake up and see me. I need you. I need you to wake up and be here for us. For the girls AND me. Please wake up. I miss you so much."

And then, Kate heard Rick say this. "Oh, Kate. I wish you were still here. I love you with all my heart. I wish I could have you back, and the girls. We'd have any more kids you'd want, and I wouldn't need to leave you anymore. We'd live together forever. Always. I love you, Kate. Come back." Kate could feel herself choking up. She looked at Rick's face, and could see tears falling from his eyes.

She leaned over to Rick and told him. "Rick. I love you. Only you. Please wake up. Please come back to us. We need you. All of us, but mostly me, your wife, Kate. Wake up, Rick. Wake up!"

She reached over with her left hand and cupped his cheek with it. Then, she bent over and kissed his lips, lightly, but passionately. She pulled back only and inch and whispered to him. "Rick. I'll always only love you. Please come back to me. Please, Rick." She let her left thumb move back and forth over his cheek, running it over his lips. "Rick." She cooed quietly. "Be with me. Stay with me. Live with me. Always. I love you, Rick."

She felt Rick's chest slowly exhale, and at first she was scared. Were his lungs deflating? Was he in distress? But it soon ended, and she watched his face closely, from only an inch away. His eyes fluttered beneath his eyelids. But then they seemed to still. She moved close to him and brushed her nose against his. Like in a dream, his eyelids slowly rose, revealing those wondrous, deep blue eyes of his. Her smile started growing. She watched him look at her own eyes. Then he looked around a bit, and then back to looking her in the eyes, before looking down again.

"Rick? Are you awake? Can you talk to me?" Kate said this in a quiet voice. Hopeful, yet scared.

"Kate? Are you here? Why aren't you in New York?" He asked her, quizzically.

"What do you mean, babe? This is New York. You're in New York. Where did you think you were?" Kate was smiling, but a bit puzzled by his question.

"Um, well, things are getting a little bit clearer. The last thing I remember was talking to Frank who somehow got into my condo, and he was insisting that I sign the divorce papers.

"Well, you kind of got your head bonked. That was about two days ago? You kind of forgot some stuff, but I'm hoping that you didn't forget the best stuff."

Rick smiled briefly at her, but she could see it was nowhere near one of his good smiles, let alone a big smile. It was a sad smile. He took as deep a breath as he could manage, and started to talk fast to get his intentions out.

"Listen, Kate. I understand that you don't love me anymore. I know you want to be with Frank. I want you to know that even though I will always love you, I'll sign those papers if you want me to. I want you to be happy. You and the girls. Whatever you need me to do, I'll do it. I know I won't be a part of it, but it's okay. You are the most important thing to me. And one more thing." Rick's head dropped down even lower, although he spoke even faster. "Kids always need their moms. Girls especially need their moms. I want you to have primary custody of them. I'd like to able to have a little time with them, but I want them to live with you. If you can spare maybe a weekend a month, and maybe a month in summer, I can live with that. They need you. I don't want to take them away from you. Bouncing them back and forth with me isn't good for them. They need stability. There is no competition here. What you and the girls need, you come first."

Kate could feel her tears starting again. She knew what Rick was doing. He was backing out of her and the girl's life as gracefully as he could. Didn't he want to be a regular part of their lives? Her life? And then she realized it. He still though Frank was in the picture. He was doing his best to be a gentleman. Her tears fell faster.

"Kate, I'm sorry I'm making you cry. I never wanted to do that. I only wanted to make you and the girls happy. I am not going to mess things up with a fight. Fighting would hurt you. I refuse to do that. Just drop the papers off, and I'll get them filled out for you."

Rick said this all in a rush, and Kate was so stunned by his apparent "giving up", that she can't even get a word in edgewise, let alone, say something meaningful. But finally, Rick seems to have wound down from his gesture. Kate thought about how best to approach the situation with him. So she reaches down and grasps his right hand again, in her left hand, and looks him firmly in his eyes. She tries to show her love and gratitude, and hopefully, forgiveness to him with her eyes.

"Rick? I need to tell you something. You were apparently talking book ideas in your new place, recording them for yourself, just like you normally do with your recorder. Somehow, Detective Daniels got into your apartment. He apparently got into your condo using a master key card that he fooled the manager into giving him. He first said he was there to force you to sign the divorce papers that I still never got around to having drawn up. And I'm happy to say that you told him you wouldn't sign them." Kate said, with a big smile on her face. She then continued.

"But then, he told you that he actually didn't want you to sign them. Instead, he wanted to kill you, because, in his mind, I'd get ALL your money, and he got this crazy idea in his head that he could somehow convince me to be with him, to get married to him, and have kids with him. I'm so very sorry that he tried to kill you. I don't know how you did it, but somehow you delayed him, and got away and locked yourself in a room. But he broke in, shot you in the arm, you then jumped out the window, and ran away, but not before he shot you in the back. And as bad as that all is, he then shot you in the head."

Rick was stunned when he heard this. "He shot me in the head? How am I still alive? How is it possible?"

"It's all okay. The last bullet only grazed your skull, but when they brought you in, they detected your brain was swelling, so that had to relieve the pressure."

By this point, Rick was starting to get a bit frantic and upset. "How did they do that? Is there some kind of pressure gauge on my head? Or what?"

"Well, because I'm not a doctor or even a nurse, I think it would be better to let the doctors and the nurses look you over. I'm going to call them over and I'm going to wait over there by that door, okay? Right there." She said, pointing where she'd be.

"Uh, okay. I guess I have a lot to ask them. Can we talk later?"

"Absolutely! As soon as they are done with their questions and any tests. Can you wait for a little while?"

"Um, sure. I'll be here.

Kate paused and kissed him gently and pulled away again. Rick didn't like it when she pulled away, and he gave her his puppy dog eyes.

"Rick, don't worry. We'll have plenty of time for that soon. But first, I need to let m know that you've woken up. I'm sure they'll have a whole lot of tests and questions for them. But I'm not worried. I know you'll be okay. Alright?"

"Okay. I can wait a bit… but only a bit." Rick said with a hopeful smile. Kate then leaned over and pressed the Call button and less than a minute later, the nurse that was so confident this morning came back. As soon as she saw Rick's eyes were open, she had an even bigger smile.

"Just a minute folks. I need to get the doctors over here. Then need to verify and do a lot of tests. But this is so good! Hold on!" And with that, the nurse jogged away.

"See?" Kate said, playfully. "I think that maybe you're a celebrity now. Who knows, maybe you'll even be famous!" She said with a big smile, because just at that moment, three doctors and four nurses were heading Rick's way. "Don't worry, babe. I'm just going to be standing over at the doors right there." She said, pointing to them. "I'll be near enough if you need me, and I'm going to call your mom, Joe, my mom, and dad. We are going to overwhelm you!" And Kate moved out of the way of the medical personnel, staying always within Rick's site. Kate pulled out her phone and started making calls.

#

It took about two hours, but finally, they doctors brought him back to where he was that morning.

"Mr. Castle. Based on the test results we've obtained, we feel that we'll very likely be able to move you to a private room by tomorrow sometime. You'll probably be in the hospital for another week or so beyond that. You'll probably get prescriptions for pain relief, as well as physical rehabilitation. And obviously, your hair will take the time to grow back. But we expect you to be able to make a full recovery, short of the odd memory or two."

"Thanks, Doctor. I'll be happy when I can see all of my family. I really appreciate all you've done to save me."

"Well, take care, and don't hesitate to ask the nurses for anything if you have problems.

"I will. Thanks again, Doc." Rick said as the doctor walked off.

By this point, Kate had gotten another coffee from the shift change, and she walked over to Rick.

"How are you doing, babe? Did it hurt? Did they scare you?"

Even though she could see some trepidation in his eyes, she also saw a cross between horror and a smirk when he told her:

"I'll admit I was totally shocked when the told me that nearly all my hair was cut off for the cranium surgery. But it won't be too long before I have my wonderful hair back. I can handle it. I'm just not going to be doing any personal appearances for a few months. I'll just wear a turban or something whenever I come over to visit you and the girls. Maybe I can get lucky and time my visits when Daniels isn't there. " He added, sotto voce.

However, Kate didn't miss what he said, and she realized that he still hadn't been told.

"Rick, I have some more news for you." She paused and continued. "Frank will not be ever coming to the house. I won't ever be even seeing him. Not even just for work, either." Kate said, in a serious voice.

"Why is that? I assumed you'd stay in touch with him."

"Rick. He tried to kill you. Twice! Not only isn't he even a cop anymore, he's not even a human being anymore. When they found out he'd tried to kill you, we found your voice recorder, and that was more than enough evidence to go after him. He tried to run away and got killed in a police car chase. He's dead. Not even a factor at all. And I'm embarrassed that he ever even was before. I'm very sorry about that."

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry to hear he's dead. But I'll admit that a little bit of me is happy to hear that. But he still didn't have to die."

"So, would you like to meet anyone else from your family now?" Kate asked.

"I'll admit that I'm not really properly dressed for the occasion, but I really would like to see them. Can you have them visit me? Oh! And can the nurse bring me some S'more flavored pudding? Or better still, could they make me an S'morlette?"

"A what?"

"A creation I made while we were separated, It's an omelette combined with an S'more, the girls love it."

"That sounds disgusting and you're not feeding that to our children anymore."

"Yes, I will three against one."

"Whatever." Kate rolled her eyes. "I'm getting you jello," Kate said walking out of the hospital room.


End file.
